All language subtitles for S02E02 - British History Movies

If the movies teach us
anything about Britain,

it's that we're not
afraid of a fight.

# The word is about

# There's something evolving... #

And when it comes to winning awards,
we have one trusty weapon -

our history.

From Queen Elizabeth
to Queen Victoria,

to the Queen to Queen,

each period of British history
has its own distinctive characters,

themes, and cinematic flavour, which
are irresistible for directors,

actors, and audiences alike.

In Secrets Of Cinema, I explore
the conventions which underwrite

the movies we love the most and
examine the techniques

film-makers use to keep us
coming back for more.

Tonight, I'm taking on nothing less
than the history of Britain

as seen on the big screen.

# And I'll see it again

MUSIC: History Repeating,
by Shirley Bassey

# Yes, I've seen it before

# Just little bits of
history repeating. #

History is the quintessential
British film genre.

America may have the great outdoors
for Westerns and road movies,

and teeming cities
for cop and crime dramas,

but Britain, well,
Britain has seen off the Romans,

been ruled by Tudors and Stuarts,

built and then lost an empire,

and fought all the way
through two world wars.

And there's more than enough
in all of that to provide

a bottomless well of story material
long after you've run out of

Marvel Comics and computer games
to adapt.

British history has always
been an exportable commodity.

Consider two films
made nearly 90 years apart.

Diplomacy! Diplomacy, my foot!

I'm an Englishman. I can't
say one thing and mean another.

In 1932, the Hungarian Alexander
Korda cast Charles Laughton

in The Private Life Of Henry VIII,
and produced the first

British talkie to make a significant
dent in the American box office

with its mix of class and vulgarity.

HENRY BELCHES

Laughton won the Best Actor Oscar
for his turn as the royal glutton,

famously tearing into chicken
with his bare hands...

All sauce and no substance...

..like one of Cromwell's speeches.

..and running through wives

the way he ran through
numerous multi-course feasts.

My first wife was clever, my second
was ambitious, my third...

Thomas, if you want to be happy,

marry a girl like
my sweet little Jane.

Marry a stupid woman.

In 2018, Greek director
Yorgos Lanthimos

cast Olivia Colman as Queen Anne
in The Favourite.

And Coleman went on to take home
a Best Actress Oscar

as the lonely,
frustrated and capricious queen,

shifting her affections from one
companion slash lover to another.

MUSIC PLAYS DISTANTLY

Make them stop.

What?

Stop!

Enough!

Stop!

Be gone!

I command it!

MUSIC STOPS

Leave!

These films appealed internationally
because they showed British royals

at their best and their worst.
Larger than life,

surrounded by pomp and magnificence,
but with a common touch.

Many historical films are filled
with howling inaccuracies

- Braveheart is a prime example -
but facts aren't really the point.

These are works of entertainment
based on what might

or might not
have actually happened.

My God!

And that storytelling
freedom attracts film-makers

of all nationalities.

From action and adventure
to political intrigue,

British history encompasses
a remarkable range

of styles and situations.

Each period is almost
a genre in itself,

with its own particular
themes and characters.

In this programme, I'll be largely
avoiding literary adaptations

like Austen and Dickens.

After all, they wrote stories
set in their own present

rather than the past.

But what I am going to do is to
look at some of the best films

about British historical events,
real and imagined,

in the order of
when they're actually set.

So let's begin
a little over 2,000 years ago.

And this is the ancient British
settlement of Cockium inconnoviae...

Depictions of Britain on the
eve of the Roman invasion

are few and far between,

which is all the more reason
to value Carry On Cleo,

as well as for its
historical accuracy, obviously.

Well, must excuse my wife,
she's not quite herself.

Her poor old mother was eaten by
a brontosaurus a few days ago.

Oh, that was too bad.
Yes, you're right.

Brontosaurus died within the hour.

But Carry On Cleo perfectly nails a
recurring theme about the period...

What a country.

..if you're a Roman,

Britain is a miserable place
with miserable weather.

THUNDER RUMBLES

Now that the fighting was over,

there were very few of them
who were not eager to get back

to the sunny shores and
farms of Italy...

They're still moaning
100 years later.

Bloody country.

Hammer Films' Viking Queen
isn't Viking at all.

It's set in Roman times,
but it features key character types

that we'll see again
in British history films.

The Pagan Mystic obsessed
with national destiny,

and the Warrior Queen
who embodies the nation.

By the powers vested in me
by Dis and Zeus,

I do hereby charge you,
Salina, Queen of the Iceni,

before the sacred mistletoe
and the golden sickle,

to lead your people wisely.

Released in 1967, the Viking
Queen now looks bracingly

ahead of its time with its
female-led action sequences.

On! Faster!

Charge!

But more recent films set in
Roman Britain tend to focus

on Roman rather than local heroes,

such as Michael Fassbender's
Quintus Dias in Centurion,

whose voiceover sets the scene
with the usual complaints.

Two years in the Frontier.

This place is the arsehole
of the world.

Even the land wants us dead.

HELICOPTER BLADES WHIR

Fassbender's weary narration
echoes another film

about a great military power
bogged down far from home.

Saigon.

Shit.

I'm still only in Saigon.

Francis Ford Coppola's Vietnam
fable is also evoked by The Eagle.

It opens with a shot
of Channing Tatum's hero

heading up a misty river as if
towards a British Heart Of Darkness.

COWS MOO

Venturing beyond civilisation,

crossing a frontier into the
dangerous unknown is a key trope.

In The Eagle, that frontier's
visibly defined by Hadrian's Wall.

So as well as echoing war movies,
films set in Roman Britain

reflect another enduring genre about
a frontier - the Western.

You can see the parallels
in their imagery.

The Eagle even pays homage to
the closing shot of John Ford's

The Searchers, clearly acknowledging
its debt to the Western.

BATTLE HORN DRONES

The Romans are barely out the door
when another lot of intruders

come along, and this bunch couldn't
care less about the weather.

In The Vikings, the emphasis
is again on the invaders,

as they attack
ninth century Northumbria.

Britain, or more specifically,
Anglo-Saxon England, needs a hero.

Enter David Hemmings as Alfred,
brother of King Aethelred.

Only rather than see off
the Vikings,

he'd prefer to enjoy the
glories of Christian Rome.

It would be easy there
to find the grace of God.

Here, we're sunk in darkness
and ignorance, groping for wisdom.

We are like blind men
at the bottom of a pit,

seeking to glimpse the stars.

How Alfred becomes Alfred the Great
is the theme of Clive Donner's

coming of age tale, charting
his journey from pious prig

to wise sovereign.

Now, some of the plot
is historically based,

such as the Vikings overrunning
much of the M4 corridor.

They were defeated at Chippenham.

Come.

But when Alfred hits
his lowest point,

we find ourselves
in more mythical territory.

Falling in with a bunch
of forest-dwelling outlaws,

Alfred regains his mojo
when a mysterious mute woman

hands him back his sword.

It's a gesture clearly
reminiscent of England's

greatest national legend.

MUSIC: O Fortuna, Carmina Burana,
by Carl Orff

No other story nominally set in
Britain gives film-makers as much

scope to let their imaginations
run wild as that of King Arthur.

Freed from even a semblance
of historical accuracy,

John Boorman's operatic Excalibur
gives us luminous knights

in shining armour, and a fine
forest-dwelling pagan mystic

in Nicole Williamson's Merlin.

While Monty Python And The Holy
Grail delivers nothing less than

God, as designed by Terry Gilliam
with the face of WG Grace,

and the voice of Graham Chapman.

THUNDER RUMBLES

Arthur...

Arthur, King of the Britons...

Oh, don't grovel.

One thing I can't stand,
it's people grovelling.

Sorry.
And don't apologise!

Every time I try to talk to someone,
it's "Sorry this,"

and "Forgive me that,"
and "I'm not worthy."

Compare the profusion of movies
about the mythical Arthur

with the dearth of ones about the
actual William the Conqueror

and the defeat of the Saxons
in 1066.

But the impact of the Norman
conquest will still be felt

in the next great era
of British history films.

# Friday night, they'll
be dressed to kill... #

Medieval Britain is a veritable
Olympics of action -

duelling, jousting, archery,

more duelling, duelling with
wooden staffs on a log,

swinging from ropes,

and...swinging from ropes.

But medieval movies repeatedly
remind us that the most important

contests are battles of personality.

The die is cast, Thomas.
Make the most of it.

And if I know you,
I'm sure you will.

Set in the 1160s,
a century after the Norman Invasion,

Becket is the story of
a high-powered bromance.

England is a ship.

The King is the captain of the ship.

That's neat. I like that.

Richard Burton's Thomas Becket
is the close confidante and fixer

of Peter O'Toole's King Henry II,

but he's a Saxon and he's a Norman.

Well, you can see
where this is going.

When you Normans invaded England,
you seized our Saxon land,

burned our Saxon homes,
raped our Saxon sisters.

Naturally, you hate Saxons.

And around the ten-minute mark, as
if straight out of a screenwriting

101 class, we were explicitly
told the film's central theme.

How do you combine the two?
My Lord?

Honour and collaboration?

I don't try.

I love good living,
and good living is Norman.

I love life and the Saxons only
birthright is to be slaughtered.

One collaborates to live.

But all it takes is for Becket to
be made Archbishop of Canterbury,

and he's having second thoughts.

I cannot allow any of my clergy to
be thrown into prison and tried

by the civil authorities.
Neither can I stand by

and let my priests be murdered.
You?

You can't allow?

You can't stand by?

Are you taking yourself seriously
as archbishop?

The bromance is off.

And before long,
it's murder on the cathedral floor.

Incidentally, Peter O'Toole himself
told me that Jean Anouilh,

who wrote the play
from which Becket was adapted,

did negligible historical research,
and based the lead characters

on two sparring actors
in his theatre company.

Come for me!

Peter O'Toole reprised
his role as Henry II

in The Lion In Winter, set 13 years
after the events of Becket.

It's December 1183, and the royal
family gather at Henry's Castle

in France to thrash out
the plans for his succession.

Ah.

Christmas, warm and rosy time.

The hot wine steams, the Yule log
roars, and we're the fat

that's in the fire. She'll be here
soon, you know. Who? Mother.

This time, Henry's love-hate power
struggle is with his estranged wife,

Eleanor of Aquitaine, played by
an Oscar-winning Katharine Hepburn.

Eleanor makes an impressive arrival
by barge,

the Learjet of the era, to a
glamorous John Barry soundtrack.

STATELY MUSIC PLAYS

What would you have me do?
Give out, give up, give in?

Give me a little peace.
A little?

Why so modest?

How about eternal peace?
Now there's a thought.

So we've got a seasonal setting
complete with tree, presents,

and passive aggression.

Yes, it's a medieval version
of that classic scenario,

the family Christmas.

"To Henry."

Heavy.

It's my tombstone!
Eleanor, you spoil me!

After Henry II's death,

British history films shift gear
from internal royal struggles

to a much more classic conflict
between power and the people.

And it's at this point that
one of our greatest heroes

enters the scene, even though
he probably never actually existed.

Who is this?

This...

Sir Robin of Locksley,
Your Highness.

Just as Errol Flynn's Robin Hood
embodies the man of the people,

Basil Rathbone's Guy of Gisbourne

represents the corrupt
establishment.

What's the matter, Gisbourne?
Run out of hangings?

I know a ripe subject for one.

And we can watch them
literally fight it out.

The Adventures Of Robin Hood
transmutes British history

into pure golden age of Hollywood
entertainment.

There's glorious Technicolour,

a rich score
by Erich Wolfgang Korngold...

EXCITING MUSIC BUILDS

..and no buckler left unswashed.

I shall never fear
my father's sword.

Really?

SHE SCREAMS

Now we're even.

In 1991's Prince Of Thieves,

Robin's nemesis is the
Sheriff of Nottingham.

And while Kevin Costner
ultimately wins the fight,

Alan Rickman steals the film.

Just a minute.

Robin Hood steals money
from my pocket,

forcing me to hurt the public...

..and they love him for it?

Yes.

No more merciful beheadings...

..and call off Christmas.

Robin Hood is, of course, the
best-known incarnation of a figure

we've already met -
the forest-dwelling outlaw.

And, unusually for the movies,
Costner's Sherwood Forest

actually looks like it was filmed
in Britain,

because it was,

unlike Errol Flynn's clearly
Californian Sherwood...

I'll race you. Come on!

What, now?

..or the Sherwood in Richard
Lester's Robin And Marian,

which was filmed in Spain.

You sure?
Of course I'm sure.

Originally titled
The Death Of Robin Hood,

Robin And Marian is effectively a
sequel to the traditional narrative.

Sunny Sherwood aside,

this must be one of the most
autumnal films ever made.

Weary and disillusioned by years
fighting for Richard the Lionheart,

Connery's middle-aged Robin
returns to England

to rekindle his relationship
with Audrey Hepburn's Marian.

You had the sweetest body
when you left.

Hard, and not a mark.

And you were mine.

I've never kissed a member
of the clergy.

Would it be a sin?

Played by Connery with
a remarkable lack of vanity,

this Robin is well past
his heroic prime.

Robin And Marian is a rare film
that depicts a hero in decline,

rather than ending his story
at the height of his success.

But the truth is that,
in British history,

real outlaws and rebels
rarely fare well.

I shall tell you of William Wallace.

Historians from England
will say I am a liar.

But history is written by those
who have hanged heroes.

Mel Gibson's Braveheart takes us
to late 13th century Scotland

following an English invasion.

Now it's not just Sherwood Forest,

but an entire country
ripe for state-sponsored pillage.

As lord of these lands,
I will bless this marriage

by taking the bride into my bed
on the first night of her union.

Oh, by God you will not.

We're fully on side
by the time Gibson's

blue-woted William Wallace
stages his epic rebellion

with an accent as wobbly
as his sword.

You have come to fight as free man.

And free men you are.

History dictates that
this hero has to die,

but in doing so, he becomes the
very thing Gibson loves best -

a martyr.

Wallace's morbidly protracted
torture and execution

is like a trial run for Gibson's
subsequent Passion Of The Christ.

Freedom!

Never one for subtlety, Gibson gives
Braveheart a pantomime baddie

in the form of Patrick McGoohan's
English King Edward I.

And tell me, what advice would
you offer on the present, uh...

..situation?

HE SCREAMS

Although it has to be said,
he has plenty of competition

in a medieval royal rogues gallery
that also includes

Richard Harris'
Richard the Lionheart...

But Robin judges me.

He always does,
the peasant bastard.

..Paul Giamatti's King John...

And we are forced to sign
your precious Magna Carta,

forced by you!

..and Vincent Price's Richard III.

Perhaps a taste of the rack would be
more to the lovely lady's liking?

Gild her.

But what if you're not
a rebel or a royal?

As far as the movies are concerned,

the main job of
ordinary medieval Brits

is to be exploited by
their unscrupulous overlords.

But England's most famous medieval
writer suggests that everyday life

is where the real action is.

Adapted from Chaucer by
Pier Paolo Pasolini in 1972,

The Canterbury Tales is an Italian
production filmed in Britain.

It's so bawdy that even
Robin Askwith makes an appearance.

You're on double time.

But once you get beyond the terrible
dubbing and Ziggy Stardust costumes,

the atmospheric British locations
and often gargoyle-like cast

make The Canterbury Tales
a vivid and immediate evocation

of a distant age.

HE GRUNTS

Even a vision of hell with Satan
farting monks out of his backside

is authentic Chaucer.

You get a sense that The Canterbury
Tales is the one medieval film

that a medieval audience
might actually recognise.

When it comes to movies
about the Tudor period,

there's one simple rule -
don't lose your head.

OPERATIC MUSIC PLAYS

It's a lesson learned the hard way
by Thomas More,

counsellor to Henry VIII in Fred
Zinnemann's A Man For All Seasons.

Robert Bolt's script keeps Henry
tantalisingly off screen

while the film builds up a picture
of Tudor political machinations.

Sir Thomas is here, Your Grace.

Sir Thomas.
Master Cromwell.

Paul Scofield's More has to avoid
being sucked into the schemes

of Orson Welles'
Cardinal Thomas Wolsey

and Leo McKern's Thomas Cromwell.

And, yes, that is a lot of
Thomases to keep across.

Why did you oppose me?

I thought Your Grace was wrong.

A matter of conscience?

You're a constant regret to me,
Thomas.

If you could just see facts flat on
without that horrible moral squint.

The film builds up such an
atmosphere of intrigue

mixed with dread...

..that by the time Robert Shaw's
king finally shows up

half an hour into the movie,
we don't quite know what to expect.

HE LAUGHS

NERVOUS LAUGHTER

More's downfall is his refusal
to support Henry's break with

the Catholic Church
so he can annul his first marriage

and wed Anne Boleyn.

It's a crisis of conscience that
calls to mind another Thomas

and another Henry
four centuries earlier.

And if this be not
enough to keep a man alive...

..then in good faith,
I long not to live.

A Man For All Seasons
captures a recurring theme

in British history movies.

It can be risky to get close
to the monarch,

and the closer you are,
the riskier it can get.

The Private Life Of Henry VIII opens
with a picture of everyday life

in Henry's reign.

A typical morning getting ready
for another beheading.

And lined up for the chop today
is Anne Boleyn.

Isn't it a pity to lose a head
like this?

Still, they will easily
find a nickname for me.

Among the queens of England,
I shall be Anne sans tete.

Director Alexander Korda also
makes us wait for Henry's entrance,

and when Charles Laughton's
king appears,

it's just like a Holbein portrait
coming to life.

If I were not the king, what then?

All right, ladies...

..come here.

And even while his second wife
is moments away from execution,

Henry is sizing up
a future prospect.

What's your name, wench?
Catherine Howard.

If it please Your Majesty.

It does, Catherine.

It does.

But Henry reveals his own
vulnerability in the film's most

telling moment, when he addresses
his newborn, longed-for son.

Through tears and cruelty and pain,
you came into the world

And by the same road,
you'll reach the throne.

And by the same road hold it.

And that painful struggle to
hold the throne is a constant theme

in films about Henry's daughter,
Elizabeth I.

Shekhar Kapur's Elizabeth depicts
the first few years of her reign

as she tries to establish
her position surrounded by men

who think they know better.

Madam, we must, with all haste,

raise an army
to march upon Scotland.

Um...

Can...?

Can we not send emissaries...?
There is no time for that!

As queen, we look to you for action,
unless you are content

to wait for the French to send
MORE reinforcements.

Go! Go!

Elizabeth quickly realises that
if she can't swim, she'll sink.

Kapur's prowling camera captures the
claustrophobic atmosphere of menace

as the film builds inexorably
to a climax

that echoes that of The Godfather.

While Elizabeth is at prayer,
her various enemies are taken out.

What is the meaning of this?

Your Grace is arrested.

You must go with these men
to the Tower.

But there's another
deeply fascinating aspect

to Elizabeth's life.

It's a coming of age story,
a tale of transformation.

Elizabeth decides that in her
weakness as an unmarried woman

lies her strength.
She becomes the Virgin Queen,

something superhuman, even adopting
a kind of mask and costume

in a scene that echoes
the superhero genre.

OPERATIC MUSIC PLAYS

No wonder so many actors have
jumped at the chance to play

both young Elizabeth
and Super Elizabeth.

Have a care with my name,
you will wear it out.

Super Elizabeth ushers in
a new heroic age

as England fends off invasion
by the Spanish Armada.

Two films, made 70 years apart,

capture the Queen rousing
her troops at Tilbury,

a real event for which
she actually did armour up.

I am resolved in the midst of the
heat of the battle to live...

..or die amongst you all!

ARMY CHEERS

I know I have the body of
a weak and feeble woman,

but I have the heart and valour
of a king.

Whether it's Cate Blanchett
or Flora Robson,

Elizabeth seems to be channelling
the kind of warrior queen figure

we last saw in the Roman era.

By your peace in camp
and your valour in the field,

we shall shortly have
a famous victory.

But in Scotland,
things look rather different.

Elizabeth is a more compromised
figure in Josie Rourke's

Mary Queen Of Scots.

This encounter between the royal
cousins, by the way,

is a classic piece
of dramatic license.

Elizabeth and Mary never met
in real life.

Do not play into their hands.

Our enmity is precisely
what they hope for.

I know your heart has more within it
than the men who counsel you.

I am more man than woman now.

The throne has made me so.

DARK CHORAL MUSIC PLAYS

The Tudor era gets a spectacular
send off in Anonymous,

courtesy of director Roland Emmerich
of Independence Day fame.

With typical bombast,

Emmerich stages Elizabeth's funeral
procession on a frozen Thames,

another piece of
film-making license.

God bless this crown and sanctify
King James of Scotland

now and forever more

as King James I of England,
Scotland, Wales, and Ireland.

And while the preceding 16 centuries
of British history

haven't exactly lacked bloodshed
and brutality,

once we reached the Stuart era,

films take a particularly
disturbing turn.

God save the King.

CROWD: God save the King.

A war against whom?

Mr Ireton.
Against the king, sir.

The king?

You mean a civil war...

..in England?

We surely do.

The civil war is the defining
event of 17th century England,

and it shapes pretty much every film
set in this period.

We're given the most straightforward
account of the war

in one of the grandest British
historical epics, Cromwell,

directed by Ken Hughes.

Richard Harris is a commanding
Cromwell, and he gives good glower

during the film's lengthy
parliament scenes.

But it's Alec Guinness'
dignified stammering Charles I

who steals the show.

Mr Speaker, you will inform
the members of this House

that their presence is no longer
required by the nation.

This parliament is, by my...
authority, terminated, dissolved.

The film's grandeur owes much
to the cinematography

of Geoffrey Unsworth,
who also shot 2001 and Superman.

Unsworth composes masterly images,

whether the battles are on the
fields of Edgehill and Naseby,

or round a table in Westminster.

CHATTER

In the name of God...

..what are we all?

Men?

Cowering and quivering
like downtrodden serfs.

The king is not England!

We know the king's doomed,

but the film still conveys
the shock of his execution.

SUDDEN MUSICAL CHORD

Behold...

CROWD SCREAMS

..the head of a traitor!

But the most unnerving moment
comes barely ten minutes in,

when we see a man
who's been mutilated

for challenging the authorities.

SHE GASPS

Oh, my God.

My God.

Oh, my God.

SHE CRIES

In a movie that largely concentrates
on the big historical players,

this scene reminds us how desperate
life must have been

for ordinary people
during the civil war.

God damn this king.

And one film captures the sheer
horror of the time like no other.

Set in 1645, Witchfinder General
is the story of Matthew Hopkins,

who roams the East Anglian
countryside with his henchmen.

Remember, John Stearne,
you ride with me only because

you help me in my work.
You call it work? The Lord's work.

A noble thing.
And a profitable one.

The good Lord paying in silver
for every hanging.

Hopkins and Stearne take
advantage of the chaos created

by the civil war to inflict their
highly profitable witch-hunting scam

on the gullible locals.

I trust you know the old man?
Better than anyone.

In private talk, you may shed
some light on his innocence.

Private? Yes, away from
the distraction of the crowds.

Perhaps in the quiet
of your room tonight,

you might be able to help me
prove him guiltless.

Aside from the splendidly venal
Price,

the film's great glory
is its sense of place.

Director Michael Reeves makes
extensive use of authentic

East Anglian locations.

And when good guy Ian Ogilvy saddles
up to ride across the countryside,

Witchfinder General truly captures
the spirit of a Western,

albeit a Western set in East Anglia.

SWELLING STRINGS PLAY

It's a brief respite from this
most claustrophobic and grim

of British horror films.

EXPLOSION

EXPLOSION

Madness runs throughout
a much more recent film

set during the civil war,
Ben Wheatley's A Field In England.

Shot in stripped-down monochrome,

it's a hallucinatory account
of an alchemist's assistant,

played by Reece Shearsmith,
who runs into some stray soldiers

while fleeing a battle.

After ingesting
psychotropic mushrooms,

the ragtag quartet come under
the power of Michael Smiley's

sinister treasure seeker.

We shall venture to continental
Europe when the opportunity arises.

I have had little success
in applying the master's arts...

..and looking for anything
of great worth...

..which is why I've conjured you.

The film is full of
disorientating narrative leaps

and unsettling images.

Moments when the action stops

and the characters are shown
in tableau vivant,

their poses suggesting a hidden,
impenetrable meaning.

And for me, one of the
most disturbing images

in recent British cinema,

when Smiley turns Shearsmith
into a kind of human metal detector.

Clearly, there's not much joy
or glory to be found

in the civil war era, but films
about it tend to be bold

and memorable, and something tells
me there'll be more movies to come

from this divided period.

With all that nasty civil war
business out of the way,

it's time to let our hair down,

or put our big hair on,

chill out to some baroque music

and hang out in a stately home
shot by Stanley Kubrick

or a stately home
shot like Stanley Kubrick.

That's the dream, anyway,
because the big theme of films

about this period is people
making their way in the world,

seeking wealth and status,
often by any means necessary.

I like danger.

I believe you do.

Few characters embody this better
than one of British cinema's

great antiheroes,
Margaret Lockwood's Barbara Worth.

Think of the exhilaration,
the excitement and the danger.

Once a man has taken to the road,

everything else must seem tame
and insipid.

The Wicked Lady looks like
a costume melodrama,

but Barbara is as hard-boiled
as the toughest femme fatale.

A bored nobleman's wife,
who becomes a highwayman,

she saddles up
and grabs the gun herself.

COACH RATTLES

Halt!

One move, and I shoot to kill!

We're back in outlaw territory,

although unlike Robin Hood, Barbara
and James Mason's Captain Jackson

are ruthlessly in it for themselves.

But they do it with panache
and remarkable sexual frankness.

I've not deceived my husband yet.

Then it's time you began.

The careless fool deserves
all he gets.

One moment.
What of the jewels and the money?

Keep them.

I can be generous, if you can.

I like to drive a hard bargain.

So do I.

Let's shoot something.

GUNSHOT

There's more female gunplay
and corseted intrigue

from Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz,

rivals for royal affection
in The Favourite.

Throw.

GUN FIRES

You're really doing damage
to the sky.

Can I ask you something?

As long as you're aware
that I have a gun.

You should know I've
canvassed my party.

They're waiting for us to
announce an attempt at peace.

Weisz's Lady Sarah keeps men
at a distance from Queen Anne,

whether on matters of politics...

Might I remind you,
you're not the Queen.

No, she has sent me to speak
for her. She is unwell.

What says she?
That Harley is a fop and a prat

and smells like a 96-year-old
French whore's va-juju.

..or matters of pleasure.

Life has changed from
the blood-soaked courts

of Anne's predecessors.

We're no longer one step away
from the executioner's axe,

removing the sense
of existential dread,

even if the scheming
is as intense as ever.

We're also looking at
an altogether more human queen.

Olivia Colman's Anne is overweight
and depressed,

riddled with gout,
and grieving for 17 lost children.

Some were born as blood...

..some without breath...

..and some were with me
for a very brief time.

While the original script
was properly researched,

director Yorgos Lanthimos and
Olivia Colman specifically stated

that they cared less for history
and everything for character.

The sense of modernist absurdity
is emphasised

by Robbie Ryan's cinematography,

which uses wide angle lenses to
bend the corners of Anne's palace

in a manner that's part dream,
part nightmare,

somehow sealed off
from the real world outside.

Britain beyond the palace gates
is captured

in its rough and dirty glory
in Tom Jones.

Adapted from Henry Fielding's
picaresque novel,

the film sees Albert Finney's
low-born foundling

embark on an 18th century road trip
to seek his fortune.

Even more openly lusty
than The Wicked Lady,

Tom Jones was the first
X-certificate British film

to win a Best Picture Oscar.

Director Tony Richardson and
cinematographer Walter Lassally

were part of the British new wave
of the early 1960s...

He's got him!

SHE SCREAMS

..and their loose, irreverent style
shook up the often staid traditions

of the period drama.

Tom's journey takes him
across the country,

and his path might have crossed
with that of another fortune seeker

whose travels lead him
much further afield.

Based on a William Makepeace
Thackeray novel,

Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon
follows Ryan O'Neal's Redmond Barry

from 1750s Ireland to the
gilded palaces of Europe

via the Seven Years War.

Good morning, Redmond.

Good morning, Captain Potzdorf.

Five years in the army and some
considerable experience of the world

had by now dispelled
any of those romantic notions

regarding love
with which Barry commenced life.

Kubrick uses his films
to build worlds,

and Barry Lyndon has to be
one of the most fully realised,

martialling costumes and locations
to stunning effect.

Several of its images are inspired
by 18th century paintings,

and there's Kubrick's fabled use
of camera lenses developed by NASA

to ensure that he could
shoot by candlelight.

And, of course, music is crucial
in establishing the setting.

GENTLE MUSIC PLAYS

Leonard Rosenman's adaptation
of period pieces won him an Oscar.

18th century Britain
looks like a great place to be

if you're a man with money.

But Britain's wealth was built
on something all too rarely explored

in films about the period -
slavery...

She is black.
She is my blood.

But she IS black.

A detail you chose
not to share with us.

..which is all the more reason
to celebrate Belle,

Amma Asante's powerful and gently
subversive romantic melodrama.

Dido Elizabeth Belle
is the illegitimate daughter

of a Royal Navy captain
and an enslaved African woman.

She ends up being raised
by her great uncle,

Lord Mansfield,
England's Lord Chief Justice.

The film is inspired
by a real life painting

and what little is known
of the title character.

Gugu Mbatha-Raw's Dido
must find her way in a society

where she's disadvantaged
by both her colour and her gender.

Must not a lady marry,
even if she is financially secure?

Who is she
without a husband of consequence?

It seems silly, like a free Negro
who begs for a master.

The film's major subplot is a case,
over which Lord Mansfield presides,

involving the deliberate drowning
of slaves at sea.

Ironically, it's an insurance claim.

Human rights are secondary
to financial compensation.

Silence! It is not legal
to discharge lives

from a ship into the waters to
facilitate insurance compensation,

whether they be the lives of horses,
or human beings,

slaves or otherwise.

SHOUTS FROM CROWD
It is not legal...

..neither is it right.

Struggles against injustice
and exploitation will loom large

in the coming century.

Perhaps the most panoramic depiction
of early-19th century Britain

is one of the most recent - Mike
Leigh's Peterloo - made to mark

the 200th anniversary
of the infamous massacre.

Leigh juggles and juxtaposes
a remarkable range of voices

from impoverished
cotton mill workers...

I don't blame you for losing hope,
Mam. I haven't lost hope, son.

I'll never lose hope.
Times is too hard to lose hope.

Hope's all we've got.

They must be removed forthwith.

I concur.

..to an unholy coalition of
establishment figures

determined to crack down
on protesters.

The rabble must be awed
into submission.

A mere show of military might
would soon see them

gambolling like little lambs
back to their looms.

They are ignorant souls.

The slow build-up
takes more than two hours,

but it pays off
with the film's overwhelming climax,

as cavalry charge
the peaceful protesters.

Leigh dispenses with music to give
the massacre a news-like immediacy.

There's an echo of the Peterloo
massacre in the opening scene

of Comrades, set in the early 1830s
after rural labourers

destroy machinery they believe
is putting them out of work.

Argh! Argh!

HORSE NEIGHS

Notice how director Bill Douglas
places his title card over a shot

of the Cerne Abbas Giant in Dorset,

suggesting a timeless theme
to the story.

God is our guide.

No swords we draw.

The comrades of the title
are the Tolpuddle Martyrs,

whose efforts to form a workers'
union lead to them being sentenced

to transportation to Australia.

Union, justice...

Many films might have stopped
at this point but, remarkably,

Douglas actually follows the martyrs
to Australia,

where he unflinchingly depicts
their harsh punishment.

Water!

Water!

Little seen since its brief release
in 1987, Comrades is a lost gem,

and, like Peterloo,
an uncomfortable corrective

to the more deferential tendencies
of historical cinema.

God bless Your Majesty.

I do want to help them,
whatever you say.

Not just the labouring poor,
but the hungry and the homeless.

There are people who are lost.

Whose business is it
to see to their welfare?

Well, in my experience, ma'am,

it's best to let these things
develop naturally.

If you interfere,
you risk overturning the cart.

Beneath the glamour, Emily Blunt's
spirited young Queen Victoria

is presented as a kind
of anti-establishment rebel herself.

In this shot, which owes much
to the style of Spike Lee,

Victoria is literally separated
from the starchy, fussy spoilsports

who surround her.

But Victoria is also at the centre
of the jingoistic images,

strikingly brought to life
by animator Richard Williams,

in The Charge Of The Light Brigade.

They capture a culture of
complacency, unthinking patriotism,

and imperial arrogance.

When it comes to Britain's
imperial military ventures in Africa

and South Asia,
there's an interesting echo of films

about the Roman era,

only this time, the Brits
are the homesick intruders,

and it's their turn
to do the moaning.

Cor, blimey.

Rorke's Drift. Take an Irishman
and give his name to a rotten,

stinking middle-of-nowhere hole
like this.

Despite their vastly superior
military technology,

the British are often presented
as heroic underdogs,

threatened by a largely
undifferentiated mass of locals.

You think the Welsh
can't do better than that, Owen?

ZULU WARRIORS SINGING

Oh, they've got a very good
bass section, mind.

But no top tenors, that's for sure.

Zulu depicts the battle
of Rorke's Drift in 1879,

in which our plucky boys
try to hold off and out-sing

thousands of Zulu warriors.

# Men of Harlech, stop your dreaming

# Can't you see
their spearpoints gleaming?

# See their warrior pennants
streaming

# To this battle field. #

Sing!

# Men of Harlech, stand ye steady...
Come on, sing!

# It cannot be ever said, ye... #

# The mighty roast beef
is an Englishman's food

# It accounts for the freedom
that runs in his blood

# For generous living
a step to all good... #

Excuse me, mates.

There's more singing from
an outnumbered Brit in Gunga Din.

This time, it's Cary Grant's
Sergeant Archibald Cutter,

surrounded by an Indian murder cult
on the Northwest Frontier.

Oi! Hey! Sing us a song, will you?

Rather than military history,

Gunga Din is an adventure story

with a swashbuckling flavour,
which strongly influenced

Indiana Jones
And The Temple Of Doom.

And what of the so-called
Empress of India herself?

Well, the older Victoria hasn't
shaken off the young Victoria's

mildly rebellious tendencies.

Recent years have seen the emergence

of a highly specific
history subgenre -

films in which the widowed queen,
who absolutely has to be played

by Judi Dench, forms a close and
slightly scandalous relationship

with a non-English servant.

In Mrs Brown, bizarrely known in
the US as Her Majesty, Mrs Brown,

the upstart interloper
is Billy Connolly's John Brown.

Lift your foot, woman.

Walk on.
HE CLICKS HIS TONGUE

While, in Victoria And Abdul,
young Indian Muslim Abdul Karim,

played by Ali Fazal, gives the
ageing queen a different perspective

on language and culture.

Shukriyaa, Abdul.

HE SPEAKS URDU

"Thank you, Abdul.
You are an excellent teacher."

Bertie.
Mother.

Were you spying on me?
Were you learning Urdu?

Yes, I was, as a matter of fact.

You think that's
entirely appropriate?

I'm Empress of India.
What could be more appropriate?

Victoria And Abdul encompasses
the final years

of Queen Victoria's life, a time
which also saw the birth of cinema.

From this point on, British history
is frequently being caught on film

as it actually happened.

But, of course, that hasn't
stopped us making history movies,

because they're about so much more
than what actually happened.

Let's conclude with a quick look
at some of the key types

of history films
made in the modern era.

HORN BEEPS

Ever ridden in one?
Rather. All the way to Epsom.

One of the most ambitious
and imaginative films

about 20th century British history

is Michael Powell
and Emeric Pressburger's

The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp.

It follows its protagonist,
Clive Wynne-Candy, from the Boer War

via the Great War
to old age in the Home Guard

during World War II, the time
when the film was actually made.

Does my knowledge count for nothing,
eh? Experience, skill?

You tell me. It is a different
knowledge they need now, Clive.

The enemy's different,
so you have to be different too.

Colonel Blimp is affectionate
and quirkily patriotic,

but it's also sufficiently satirical
and sceptical

that Winston Churchill
reportedly tried to have it banned

on the basis that it might be
bad for wartime morale.

What's that? A gun, sir.
Brother's a game keeper.

That's the ticket.
Load with number four.

We'll soon have rifles, Tommy guns,
too. Know which end is which?

Oh, yes, sir.
That's right.

Colonel Blimp felt close to the bone
because it explored a period

of history that many of its audience
had lived through themselves.

Most of today's cinemagoers
were born long after the 1940s,

and perhaps we're prepared to allow
films about the period

much more dramatic licence.

Churchill himself is
the central figure in

one of the most recent films
about World War II, Darkest Hour.

Here, Gary Oldman's Churchill
plays a similar cinematic role

to Elizabeth I, or Queen Victoria,
the national leader

surrounded by scheming, or, at best,
misguided establishment figures.

I propose...
The only slippery slope...

Would you stop interrupting me
while I am interrupting you?!

When I chose my War Cabinet, I took
great care to surround myself

with old rivals.

I may have overdone it.

But he's reinvigorated by a trip
on the Underground,

where he encounters what's presented
as authentic Britain.

It's like a visit to the
magical woods in Arthurian legend

and just as fanciful.

Now, let me ask you this.

If the worst came to pass,
and the enemy were to appear

on those streets above,
what would you do?

Fight.
Fight the fascists.

Fight it with anything
we can lay our hands on.

Broom handles if we must.
Street by street.

They'll never take Piccadilly.

Released in the same year as Darkest
Hour, Dunkirk sees British soldiers

once again in the role
of beleaguered underdogs,

but it's also a very contemporary
take on history,

told through the multiple timeframes

that are a hallmark of director
Christopher Nolan.

Mr Dawson!

One of ours, George.

Both Dunkirk and Darkest Hour
captured British power in crisis...

..and it's still the case that
no-one embodies British power better

than a British monarch.

In The King's Speech,
George VI struggles to

overcome his vocal impediment
and rally the nation

at the start of World War II...

..while in The Queen, the death
of Princess Diana in 1997

puts the royal family
under the spotlight.

We're back to the archetype
of the monarch as an embattled

but sympathetic and very human
figure, struggling to balance

tradition
with their responsibilities

and their personal flaws.

Oh, beauty.

In this grave...

..hour...

It's got to be one of the most
winning formulas in cinema.

Colin Firth and Helen Mirren
both followed in the footsteps

of Charles Laughton's Henry VIII,

bagging Oscars for their
royal leading roles.

We're still fascinated
by our outlaws, too,

although their stomping ground
tends to be the East End of London

in the 1960s rather than Sherwood
Forest in the late 12th century.

Phil Collins' Great Train Robber
Buster Edwards has plenty of

man of the people charm.

It's a Royal Mail train.

Carries a million quid
on a bank holiday weekend.

And we're going to nick it.
One million quid.

But charm isn't the first word
that comes to mind

with the Kray twins.

Ha. Is this a joke?

Do you see me laughing?

Peter Madek's take
on the gangster brothers

starred Gary and Martin Kemp,
pop stars like Phil Collins.

The more recent Legend, however,
featured a digitally duplicated

Tom Hardy, not known for his
1980s power ballads.

I work for me, and you,
you work for them. Hey.

# Dum. Der, der-der

# Da-da, da-da...

# It's a little bit funny... #

But pop music is the great cultural
phenomenon of the post-war era.

And, as we saw in our Secrets Of
Cinema about coming of age films,

it's one of the most powerful ways
of evoking a time and place.

Look at the ecstatic music-driven
scenes in Billy Elliot,

set in County Durham
during the miners' strike.

# A whole street's belief

# In Sunday's roast beef

# Is dashed against the Co-op... #

Meanwhile, Gurinder Chadha's
Blinded By The Light uses the songs

of Bruce Springsteen to tell the
story of a British Pakistani family

in Luton in the Thatcherite '80s.

One, two, three, four.

# The highways jammed
with broken heroes

# On a last chance power drive... #

# But it's been no bed or roses... #

All of which brings us
to an emerging trend

in British history films -

the pop biopic, which combines
a nostalgic musical soundtrack

and outlandish costumes
with the rags-to-riches stories

of a very modern kind of royalty -
the rock star.

# We are the champions, my friend

# And we'll keep on fighting
Till the end... #

And whether it's Freddie Mercury
or Elton John, these films show

outsiders rising to the heart
of British cultural identity.

# La, la, la, la, la. #

It's a narrative that ultimately
offers hope and reassurance,

and it's a new national myth
to add to all the others

that run through the rich genre
of British history films.

# La, la, la, la, la

# La. #