Long live The White Queen? Not quite

The White Queen

Rating: 3/5

Laughed at and ridiculed for its astonishing amount of historical inaccuracies, BBC’s expensive production of The White Queen, based on a series of historical fiction novels written by Philippa Gregory came to a close on Sunday 18th August, with a swift cancellation notice from its network, which isn’t all that surprising since a) this cost an absolute fortune and a heck of a long time to put together, b) the ratings and reception were hardly something to boast about, and c) for the most part the main stories were concluded satisfyingly with no loose ends left behind. What once looked and sounded so promising at the start became dishevelled and downright dull in the period of ten weeks. There is so much to cover it seems, in this 10-part mini-series that the show often finds itself warping through time, only keeping the audience in check with time-stamps at the bottom of the screen. It powers through the significant historical events, ticking away at the boxes The Lancaster and York families are at war for the control of the English throne. When the mad King Henry VI of the Lancaster family falls and Edward IV (Max “son of Jeremy” Irons) of York takes over the throne, it’s more challenging than ever to have absolute power over the country. There are hidden plots at every corner, and in the day and age where your own family member is willing to betray you for more money and authority, it’s clear that you can trust no one. Thus putting matters into further turmoil is the fact that Edward IV has not one, but two brothers: George (David Oakes) and Richard (Aneurin Barnard), both with goals and ambition of their own, which is never a good sign when trying to rule a peaceful kingdom. King Edward IV’s impulsive marriage to Elizabeth Woodville (Rebecca Ferguson, quite the rising star), later dubbed The White Queen (their courtship starts with attempted rape and later ends up as true love), is not a popular one. They’re from opposing families, plus there’s a rumour going around that Elizabeth and her mother Jacquetta (Janet McTeer) frequently practice witchcraft. The sudden rise in ranks of Elizabeth Woodville is not taken lightly by Richard Neville the Earl of Warwick (James Frain), known as the Kingmaker, for his instrumental role in helping Edward IV secure the crown. Betrayals soon follow, and also tossed into this deadly ring of scheming and treachery are his two young daughters, Isabel (Eleanor Tomlinson) and Anne Neville (Faye Marsay) who are bound to be pawns in their father’s viciuos games. But wait, that’s not all (still with me so far?). Praying and praying for her son’s rightful claim to the throne is Margaret Beaufort (Amanda Hale), mother of Henry Tudor, a God-fearing, devout Catholic lady who is single-handedly trying to orchestrate her son’s victory. Further messing with your head is the addition of another Margaret, this time Margaret of Anjou (Veerle Baetens), the wife of mad King Henry VI (remember him?), now exiled to France, quietly plotting a comeback with her young son. Even all that, doesn’t begin to cover all the characters who eventually enter the picture for the many, many conflicts that ensue. Whereas Game of Thrones had a way of making everyone stick to our mind, The White Queen, despite some good performances in the ensemble doesn’t quite succeed. Everything moves at such an awkward pace, sometimes ploddingly, sometimes alarmingly quickly, that it’s difficult to have a firm grasp on who’s who until at least quite a few episodes into the series. It’s no doubt intriguing, once you can take the time to wrap your head around the setting and find yourself deeply rooting for whichever character for whatever reason. It might be wise to brush up on your knowledge on the War of the Roses to prevent getting completely lost in this dense, multiple story-arc costume drama. Staying faithful to Gregory’s books, a lot of the action takes place off the screen, so don’t go into this expecting some grand battles or big sieges, because where the action lies is in conversations and plotting that happens behind closed doors, inside chambers, dark alleys and forests. And with every episode richly packed with facts and events, it is clearly a historical drama wanting to be taken seriously: a task compromised due to its many startling and quite frankly, embarrassing errors and goofs. Zippers on clothes and plastic clips may be easy to overlook, but concrete steps and shiny metallic poles are not. Looking squeaky clean at every turn, the series’ general atmosphere fails to really capture the look and ambiance of the era, and the sugar-coated, tidied up production doesn’t resonate. But despite the errors, this bloodless, sexless (a lot of the violent, racy scenes were edited out for English audiences since, you know, we’re all prudes) show marches on, aware of the fact that it has plenty of stories left to tell. And the actors all do a decent job, although the best ones (McTeer and Frain especially) are sadly short-lived and don’t last throughout the series. The series finds itself a neat point to finish off on, and although there are plenty more events that the show could have focused on had there been a renewal, BBC made the wise decision to put this costly, confused show out of its misery. The White Queen is out on DVD