Charles II: The Power and the Passion is a British television film in four episodes, broadcast on BBC One in 2003, and produced by the BBC in association with the A&E Network in the United States, which also released it in North America with heavy edits. It was produced by Kate Harwood, directed by Joe Wright and written by screenwriter Adrian Hodges, whose credits include David Copperfield and The Lost World.
Contents
Synopsis
The series covers the life of Charles II – beginning just before his Restoration to the throne in 1660. He was deeply traumatised by the execution of his father in 1649, after the former's defeat in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms; it begins, however, with his penurious exile in Antwerp in 1658. The film's emphasis is on his court, and his conflicts with Parliament – essentially the same issues which led to the Civil War between his father Charles I and the House of Commons, the politics of who would succeed him – and his relationships with his family, his mistresses and his illegitimate son James, Duke of Monmouth.
The film dramatises both Charles's laziness and frivolous diversion, leaving political issues to his chancellor Sir Edward Hyde, but becoming increasingly irritated by the paternalistic way which Hyde behaves towards him. Dismissing Hyde, he takes the reins of power himself, determined that his brother should succeed him in the event of his not having any legitimate children (despite opposition to James's Catholicism), and that Royal Power not be challenged by Parliament.
The production won the British Academy Television Award for Best Drama Serial in 2004. Composer Rob Lane received a nomination for Outstanding Music Composition for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special (Dramatic Underscore) at the 32nd International Emmy Awards.
Historical veracity
The production team and the writer made an attempt to make this version as close to history as the constraints of squeezing 27 years of history into 4 hours allow. The script appears to be heavily influenced by Antonia Fraser's bestselling 1979 biography Charles II. In the "Making of Charles II" Rufus Sewell states that he used Fraser's book as guide to his portrayal of the penultimate Stuart king.
There are some issues of fact which are altered or omitted in the script.
The script implies, in a statement by George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, that both his and Charles' father had died fighting for the Royalist cause. In fact, George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, was assassinated by a disgruntled, perhaps mentally unbalanced, navy officer named John Felton in 1628.
Before arriving in England, at Parliament's invitation, to take up his throne, Charles II promised an amnesty "for all [his enemies] except those exempted by Parliament." After much debate, Parliament decided that all of the enemies of Charles I should be amnestied except for those who had signed the latter's death warrant. The series portrays Charles as pardoning some of his father's "murderers" after the brutal execution of a number (in fact 15). In fact, the thirteen not executed were not pardoned, but sentenced to life imprisonment.
In one scene, shown in the British version only, Charles is seen to cast a piece of paper into a fire, in a context that heavily implies it was a marriage contract between himself and Lucy Walter, mother of his favourite, and ill-fated, natural son, James, Duke of Monmouth. Charles's alleged marriage to Lucy Walter is heavily contested by historians.
Above, Charles kept his friend and adviser, the Duke of Buckingham, in the dark about the secret provisions of the Treaty of Dover. Buckingham was later sent to Paris to sign a sham treaty with Louis XIV. This is left out of the mini-series altogether.
In one scene, Charles visits his mistress Lady Castlemaine in her apartments at Whitehall Palace, only to find her in bed with a young John Churchill, future Duke of Marlborough, who would become one of England's most famous military commanders and play an important part in the War of the Spanish Succession. A brief conversation ensues between the King and Churchill. In reality, Lady Castlemaine was at one of her houses and Churchill leapt from a window to avoid a scene with the King.
Reception
Critic Kathryn Flett wrote that the performances in the miniseries excelled and that it "has everything the casual viewer might demand of a contemporary costume drama", but also that the elaborate hairstyling detracted from the overall work. Nancy Banks-Smith critiqued the show for its portrayal of Charles II as "wide-eyed and wounded", but praised the "luscious" scenery. The opening episode received 6.1 million views, but fell to 4.5 million by its third episode, reflecting an 18 percent audience share. The ITV program Foyle's War, airing in the same time slot received a 34 percent audience share.