The White Queen

One night early there was a preview showing of this new series from the Brits. It looks promising if a bit unorthodox in its approach to history and slips in the settings and costumes. The series is based on Philippa Gregory's novel, 'The Cousins' War' and roughly the story line promises to follow these lines: Set against the backdrop of the Wars of the Roses, the series is the story of the women caught up in the long-drawn-out conflict for the throne of England. It starts in 1464--the nation has been at war for nine years fighting over who is the rightful King of England, as two sides of the same family, the House of York and the House of Lancaster, are in violent conflict over the throne. The story focuses on three women in their quest for power, as they manipulate behind the scenes of history--Elizabeth Woodville, Margaret Beaufort and Anne Neville.

In the first episode we don't see much more than King Edward's bedding and wedding of Elizabeth, a lot of bickering, some fighting, and some castle intrigue. Rebecca Ferguson plays Queen Elizabeth, Amanda Hale plays Lady Margaret Beaufort, Faye Marsay is Anne Neville, and the remarkable actors are Janet McTeer as Jacquetta Woodville (Elizabeth's magical mum) and Max Irons (handsome son of Jeremy Irons) as King Edward. James Frain is an unusually grumpy and sour Lord Warwick and Caroline Goodall is splendid as the evil Duchess Cicely. It is difficult to tell from an isolated episode, but the series has enough interest in the poorly understood realm of the War of the Roses for American audience that it will probably have staying power. Stay tuned...

Grady Harp

I'm a huge fan, there's my position at the start. I love quality historic TV productions, and as such am a big fan of The Borgias and its European cousin Borgia, of Rome, of I Claudius, and I tried very hard to like The Tudors.

I'm not sure how a viewer with no historic background knowledge of the Wars of The Roses (as we know them) and the dynastic struggle that eventually resulted in The Windsors, but I find the tale, which includes some of the present Queen's ancestors, completely gripping.

Unfortunately I know what's about to happen during most scenes (apart from the silly stuff with Elizabeth and Lady Rivers, which does not detract from the story), so my advice is not to visit Wikipedia if you don't want your fun spoiled. Enjoy this tragic and dramatic story of one of England's earlier civil wars.

Interesting story line for those of you who have the slightest clue of history. Other reviewers talk about "supernatural" plot lines. I had to chuckle. This series is based on a scandalous time in history. It is pretty factual with some added creative license. Historical events of this family and time involve accusations of witchcraft. This is not a Hollywood conjured up plot line with supernatural concoctions to make a series more interesting as other reviewers suggest. After this first episode, I would say it rates mountains above most garbage you see on US television. Elizabeth Grey reigned as queen for 19 years. I recommend a Google search for some of you to get a taste of the juicy storyline this series will bring.

Having had the pleasure of finishing the series on BBC iPlayer today I would like to say I thoroughly enjoyed it as did most people who saw it with me.

Now I did not watch this because I wanted a historical documentary. I watched it for the same reason I watched The Tudors, for an entertaining period drama about the intrigue surrounding the War of the Roses. There are many inaccuracies in both shows but I found them easy to overlook. It concerns mainly Elizabeth Woodville and her time as Queen of England whilst others plotted her demise and some even sought to overthrow King Edward. The acting was, on the whole, very good for TV and the sets and costumes were all fantastic and suited the characters portrayed in them. There clearly was not a high budget here and it shows, particularly in the battle scenes. However, I did was able to overlook this as the story did enough to draw me in.

The reason many people did not enjoy this show as much, in my opinion, is due to the first couple of episodes. They are considerably weaker than the rest of the show and I was tempted to give up after episode 2, it just seemed too much like a soap opera. However, once the main story lines picked up it was highly enjoyable.

If you can overlook the flaws in this show and, like me, you actually read books for your historical knowledge rather than TV dramas then you should be able to enjoy this show and I highly recommend it.

Ostensively, this is based on three books written by Philippa Gregory; The White Queen, The Red Queen, and The Kingmaker's Daughter.

First, the White Queen/Queen Elizabeth (Rebecca Ferguson) who marries Edward IV (Max Irons) after his overthrow of the old ineffective King Henry VI and the cruel Bad Queen/Margaret of Anjou. Elizabeth had lost her husband defending the old King. Edward won the crown with his brothers Richard (Aneurin Barnard) and George (David Oakes) and cousin Warwick (James Frain). Neither the mother of the three brothers nor Warwick like the new queen claiming she practices witchcraft which she does.

The second is the Red Queen/Lady Margaret Beaufort (Amanda Hale) who is the mother of Henry Tudor. She burns with the conviction that her son will one day be King. She chaffs at all the slights imparted on her son and stays close to court waiting for an opportunity.

The third is Anne Neville (Faye Marsay), the daughter of Warwick and eventual wife to Richard. Her mistrust of Queen Elizabeth would ignite a whole series of internal family struggle after the death King Edward.

This is kind of like a prequel to The Tudors. If you like scheming and backstabbing, this has loads of that. This series likes to go with more the point of view of the women of court. It doesn't have any big battles or big set pieces. That's perfectly fine. There is still plenty of drama to be had. Rebecca Ferguson is quite good at the center stage. It is James Frain who steals much of the scenes. His presence is overwhelming and rises above everybody. He also has a great part. In fact, there are a lot of great performances from everybody. It helps that the Royal soap opera is so rich.