The White Queen and my thoughts

A lot of people will have enjoyed the White Queen on tv. I wished I had enjoyed it more. But I'm one of those people who go on about zippers in medieval clothes, and heroines who barely age between 24 and 46 in spite of living in perilous times and bearing 12 children. At the end of the series, Elizabeth's jawline was firm, sculptured and would be the envy of any sixteen year old. True, they made her look pale and sometimes she had a hint of bags under her eyes, but that's all.

Richard was never well cast in my view. There was something strange about Richard as portrayed here, and perhaps the fault lies in the dialogue he was given, but he always seemed wooden, as if that lovely padded jacket he wore was in reality a steel corset that kept him rigid. And the lines themselves - "I am the King! You will breathe for me!" he says to his dead son. No actor could make those lines work. Maybe the actor wanted to give Richard a brooding sense of wickedness held in check, but if he did he ought to have realised it did not blend well with the character's actions and dialogue.

The series never made clear who dealt the Princes in the Tower the final blow. (or if it did I missed it!) Was it Anne Neville? Or Margaret Beaufort? The curse on the boys' killer, made by Elizabeth and her daughter Elizabeth, seems to point to Anne (she died and her son died) but not to Margaret, whose son lived to father sons of his own, but then one son died.  One survived, but all Henry VIII's sons died, of course. Well, make of it what you will, the curse was a stroke of genius on Phillippa Gregory's part. I'm assuming the idea originated with her, and wasn't some folk tale she'd tapped into.

I thought the it was also a stroke of genius on the part of the film-makers to have the actor's breath cloud the air even when they stood in front of a roaring fire, hinting at the coldness of their surroundings. So many of the scenes were set in stone castles or churches, and they would have been cold indeed. But then they went too far. The Battle of Bosworth Field was fought on 22nd August and they filmed it in snowy, winter conditions with leafless trees!

My other gripe was that two actors looked so much like each other that I never got them straightened out. I think one bearded  gent was on Tudor's side and the other was on Richard's side. But have two big burly men with curly brown hair and beards made it so easy to confuse them. I think the acting award for the series goes to the actor who played Stanley. The one who played Margaret Beaufort was good, but by the end I had had enough of her mouth rolling grimaces, and to go to a man and ask him to sacrifice his son for hers was a step too far...the woman was obsessed and borderline mad. But there I go, confusing character and actor, so she must have been good.

Post Battle Sex

I set out to watch The White Queen when the series began and lost interest after two episodes. Zips fastening gowns are so uncool in a medieval series. Zips have to be easy for the costume department, I understand that, but if they must use them instead of the authentic and quite erotic criss-cross lacing, then why don't they make sure the cameras don't catch the wretched things? Think of the love scenes involving laces they could do....

This last episode featured Richard of Gloucester, and I was curious. Always a Richard supporter, I think the casting director must have taken note of the facial reconstruction on Richard's skeleton done recently, because the actor portraying the character has a distinct resemblance to that model head. It's just a pity he lacks charisma. He gives very little to the camera, hasn't a distinctive voice, and his role is to stand by a lot of the time. He comes across as shy, earnest and a tad boring.

But then, Gregory's novels always give dramatic precedence to the women and of course, it is Elizabeth Woodville's story. I do wonder at the seeming preference for filming women-on-top sex. In the three episodes I've watched, I think every sex scene showed the men lying passive beneath an active woman. Perhaps the men were just too tired when they got home after all those battles.

For me, the best acting award goes to Janet McTeer, who died slowly in this weeks's episode. I also thought she had a distinct resemblance to Ms Gregory, though if they stood  side by side the disparity in their height would ensure absolute recognition! I heard Gregory speak at Alnwick Castle a few years ago, and she is tiny, hardly more than five foot two I should imagine. Inside that small frame there lurks a forceful personality and a strong work ethic.  I've often wondered if some of the characteristics of her characters rub off on Ms Gregory!

The pic is of Tim, who knows how to relax!