Elizabeth, the Golden Age

Weirdly truncated speeches by Elizabeth. I can't honestly say the stuff they put on screen was better than history, although "the Inquisition lies in the bellies of those ships" — Phillip's Armada — was pretty good and I hope she said it.

Mostly, this little fillum seemed like an opportunity for Cate Blanchett to display an entire zoo of facial tics and nuances, and she did her craft proud, but look like Joan of Arc in shining armor and flowing red Valkyrie hair she never did. Disbelief suspended, the two DVD box set will be a nice Christmas presentation, this year or next.

The great alpha women have a peculiar effect on the Queen's English, even more than men. If you listen to the King's English on dictaphone, what you hear is not Oscar Wilde but Edward R. Murrow about a decade out of joint. Elizabeth's brogue survives even in her own hand; it's always struck me odd that her style seems more modern than her contemporary, Shakespeare's.