Power struggles and sexual intrigue: an average day for the royals (c. 1658).

by Helen Stewart, The Scotsman On Sunday, November 16, 2003

While the reign of Charles III is reportedly hanging by a thread, it is perhaps timely to have a look back through the royal family album to see how his predecessors fared. We know from the opening minutes of Charles II: The Power And The Passion that things didn't go too well for his dad, as we see the younger man -- in what we must assume is a dream sequence -- sprayed with the blood from Charles I's decapitated body.

We join the future Charles II in Antwerp in 1658, where he is biding his time until he can unseat Cromwell and return home. It is a poor sort of a court, and his mother, Henrietta Maria (played by Diana Rigg with more than a hint of the Emperor from Star Wars), when not trying to convert her sons to Catholicism, is complaining about them eating dinner off of dirty plates.

Director Joe Wright has opted for a hand-held, shaky camera-work style that is more familiar in cop shows (NYPD Royal Blue?), but as a method of communicating the immediacy of these people's conversations and their effect on history as a wider stage it is surprisingly effective. This is a lavish production, never more apparent than in the magnificent (though surely not historically accurate) production design. I've never been to Antwerp, so I couldn't comment on whether it really is that cold, damp and shot through with greys and blues (or whether there are quite so many prostitutes), but I'm pretty sure that the London chamber where Charles meets with his council was not painted with massive faces from Dr. Tulp's Anatomy Lesson by Rembrandt.

Rufus Sewell plays the king with boyish bravado and a prettiness that reminds you so much of Marc Bolan that you practically want him to be riding a white swan on his return to London. (I bet Nell Gwynn turns out to be the little girl who stuck her tongue out at him, by the way.) Helen McCrory is devastating as Barbara Villiers, the king's wily mistress -- she is an actress who is far from conventionally pretty but when she is on screen you just cannot take your eyes off her.

The Duke of Buckingham, the king's best friend (and also lover of Villiers) is played by Rupert Graves. There is no shortage of sex at the palace -- one scene involving McCrory and Graves is quite a taboo-buster -- but, then, what else did they have to do when television had yet to be invented?

Just as a matter of interest, you might want to know how the Duke of Buckingham won his title. Turns out his pa was the son of a Leicestershire knight who happened to catch the eye of James I, and shortly afterwards he was appointed a gentleman of the king's bed chamber and began to share James's bed. What the happy pair may or may not have done there has been the subject of feverish speculation ever since. Plus ça change ...

Charles II: The Power And The Passion, tonight, BBC 1, 9 pm.

Caption: Proper Charlie: King Charles II (Rufus Sewell) gets to grips with Barbara Villiers (Helen McCrory).