Elizabeth R (TV Series 1971)

Elizabeth R is a BBC television drama serial of six 90-minute plays starring Glenda Jackson as Queen Elizabeth I of England. It was first broadcast on BBC2 from February to March 1971, through the ABC in Australia and broadcast in the United States on PBS's Masterpiece Theatre. Click on CC for optional English subtitles. Elizabeth R was filmed at a variety of locations including Penshurst Place which doubled as the queen's castle grounds and Chiddingstone in Kent, though all the interiors were recorded at the BBC Television Centre. Glenda Jackson's performance in the title role won her two Emmy Awards—for Best Actress in a Drama Series and Best Actress in a Movie/TV Special (for the episode "Shadow in the Sun"). The series itself won the Emmy for the Best Dramatic Series in 1972 (the first British TV series ever to win the American TV award, before Upstairs, Downstairs carried the award two years later). At around the same time, Jackson also played the part of Elizabeth in the film Mary, Queen of Scots (1971). Costume designer Elizabeth Waller won an Emmy for her designs; she recreated many of the historical Elizabeth's actual gowns, adapting them from a number of the Queen's official portraits. They later went on display at Hampton Court Palace. Elizabeth R featured many well-known British actors, including Malcolm McFee, Michael Williams, Margaretta Scott, John Woodvine, James Laurenson, Angela Thorne, Brian Wilde, Robin Ellis, Robert Hardy and Peter Egan. Episode 1: The succession of the boy king Edward VI heralds dangerous times for the young Princess Elizabeth. Having narrowly avoided implication in Sir Thomas Seymour's attempted abduction of Edward, she becomes an unintentional figurehead for a Protestant rebellion led by Thomas Wyatt the Younger when her half-sister Queen Mary I, a devout Roman Catholic, succeeds to the throne. Episode 2: https://rumble.com/v70uguc-elizabeth-r-tv-series-1971-the-marriage-game-episode-2.html

Episode 2: The new queen Elizabeth I is 25 years old—and unmarried. Her Council—particularly the man she trusts most, Sir William Cecil—urges her to marry quickly to ensure the succession. Only Lord Robert Dudley, at first her Master of the Horse, and eventually the Earl of Leicester, seems to interest the queen. Episode 3: https://rumble.com/v70vdy2-elizabeth-r-tv-series-1971-shadow-in-the-sun-episode-3.html

Episode 3: Elizabeth meets her most eligible suitor yet: Francis, Duke of Alençon, the younger brother of the French king. A marriage will cement France's sought-for alliance with England. Despite the Puritans' rousing of opposition in the country (which her zealously anti-Catholic councillor Sir Francis Walsingham secretly approves of), Elizabeth seems taken with the witty and flower-tongued Francis. Her duties as queen clashing with her feelings as a woman, Elizabeth faces her toughest decision. Episode 4: https://rumble.com/v70wh0e-elizabeth-r-tv-series-1971-horrible-conspiracies-episode-4.html

Episode 4: As long as the imprisoned Mary, Queen of Scots lives, she is the focus of plotters and revolutionaries. Despite a clampdown against conspiring Roman Catholics, Mary (Elizabeth's prisoner for nearly twenty years), inspires an attempt to overthrow Elizabeth. Elizabeth fears Mary's death will condemn her in the eyes of God. Episode 5: https://rumble.com/v70whuo-elizabeth-r-tv-series-1971-the-enterprise-of-england-episode-5.html

Episode 5: The infirm King Philip II of Spain is eager to avenge the death of Mary, Queen of Scots. Philip orders an unprepared fleet, commanded by the inexperienced Duke of Medina Sidonia, to sail on England. Even as Elizabeth rebukes the hawks (privateers) in her council (both Walsingham and Sir Francis Drake), with her hopes of peace, the Spanish Armada appears on the horizons of England. Her fate and the future of the country now lie in the hands of Drake and the Navy. Episode 6: https://rumble.com/v70wk7c-elizabeth-r-tv-series-1971-sweet-englands-pride-episode-6.html

Episode 6 (Finale): Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex is the people's champion. He and Charles Howard have been successful in capturing and sacking the Spanish seaport of Cádiz. Essex is given a great opportunity to rise in power by being made Lord Deputy of Ireland and quelling the uprising led by O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, but he squanders his army, makes an inglorious truce with O'Neill, and returns to England without permission. After his unsuccessful uprising against the queen in London, he is executed. The old queen shines in her final address to Parliament, but dies soon afterwards. Her last action is a nod to Robert Cecil to his query about her successor being King James VI of Scotland.