KING CHARLES III
Adapted by Mike Bartlett from his Tony-nominated stage play
BBC Two. 10 May. 89 minutes
Mixed reviews of the acting, horror at the apparition of the well-nigh beatified Diana who subtly caused trouble for everyone, and shock at the practically perfect Kate being portrayed as a bit of a schemer – one did wonder if reviewers of BBC’s King Charles III realised that this was not a documentary.
Perhaps what caught out Joe Public and Joanna Professional-Reviewer (other than the slightly odd Shakespearian-esque writing), were the haunting glimpses of the funeral of Elizabeth II. It did leave one thinking ahead to the worldwide changes there may be – new republics being created where loyalty to the new King may be less felt than that towards the Queen – that will put the hysteria around the death of Diana into a full-stop-sized dot in history. Stability over seven decades was all but overturned within moments of Charles acceding to the throne.
Freedom of the press
The unravelling began with Charles refusing to sign off on a law that would restrict the freedom of the press, despite his family having suffered so much at their hands. The press turned on him and both family and country fell apart. Surely, despite the constitutional maelstrom – they could feed for months off the option he chose – the press would have loved this move?
How will the nation mourn and move on when the inevitable gun carriage proceeds through London? What laws would we wish Elizabeth to have written ‘assent withheld’ across? Will a ‘defender of faith’ mark the end of the established church, and will that matter? Could a royal son really become just like ‘one of us’? (Very clever juxtaposing of the responses to Harry from father and brother and the outcome, which inverted what one would have expected from the two generations of monarch.)
Thankfully, a royal Son did become like ‘one of us’, with his Father’s blessing. And because of this, even if Charles III, William V and George VII are bad monarchs, our place in the Royal Family is assured, the Kingdom is secure and our King will never be replaced, for his is an everlasting throne.
