15 thoughts on “Frock Flicks Guide to Lesser British Queens & Empresses on Film: the 20th Century

  1. Cool! Olivia Colman is playing her own mother! She’s Elizabeth the Queen Mum in Hyde Park on the Hudson, and she will be her daughter Elizabeth II in the next two seasons of The Crown. (And then she was also her own second cousin about eight times removed, from playing Queen Anne in The Favorite. (She has a face for portraying Stuarts/Hanoverians/Windsors!)

  2. Alexandra always seemed a sweet, funny woman, someone who would make a good friend. I remember a story about her visiting soldiers in hospital and telling one young man not to worry about his wounded leg, that she had had a recent accident, and (something to the effect of), “Just look at me now!’ Whereupon she casually kicked said leg up and rested it on a table.

    Also, what did anyone think of Eileen Atkins as Queen Mary in “The Crown”? She was my favorite: that scene where she curtsies to her granddaughter for the first time, with a long stare of Crone Wisdom.

    1. (I mean, she had had a recent, somewhat similar accident to her own leg; she did not kick the soldier’s leg.)

    2. I loved that moment in The Crown too! It was amazing! And so sad too. Really lovely.
      Eileen Atkins is amazing, I also loved her in Upstairs, Downstairs

  3. Another entry (through a glass darkly) for Queen Mary is Maggie Smith’s portrayal of the Duchess of York in Ian McKellen’s Richard III. Her outfits and appearance struck me as a direct reference to Queen Mary. (Along with several other parallel portrayals.)

  4. I love them all, but I have a soft spot for HBC in the King’s Speech.
    Also Olivia Coleman should play Queen Victoria and possibly Queen Mary I. Then she’ll have played with a few exceptions the ‘major’ 19-20th century queens and a Renaissance one.

  5. One of my favorite Youtubers, Jessica Kellgren-Fozard, did a video on Queen Alexandra for Disability History Month under the title “The deaf princess who became a style icon.” It warmed my heart.

  6. Smart Aleck answer: Jane Seymour’s turn as Wallis Simpson in “The Woman He Loved”; she was the uncrowned queen of England.

  7. In Hyde Park on Hudson I thought they got the King and Queens characters the wrong way round.

  8. Hitler called Elizabeth the most dangerous woman in Europe due to her capacity for inspiring the populace. She refused to leave Buckingham Palace during the blitz as her subjects couldn’t leave and she trained with a gun every day so if there was an invasion, she could do her part. Loved her!

  9. Helen Ryan really loved playing Alexandra she played her yet again in 1994 sherlock Holmes “The Mazarin Stone” and Joanna David played Alexandra in “Jennie Lady Randolph Churchill” There was also an Alexandra in “Fall of Eagles” 1974 ep 09 Glenn Close played her in 1982’s TV version of “The Elephant Man” Deborah Grant played young Alexandra (with some beautiful costumes) in “Edward The Seventh” (1975) also and Pamela Abbott played her in “Muder by Decree” (1979)

  10. Victoria Hamilton plays the Queen Mum in Season 1 and 2 of The Crown. I think she’s great in it. Gives the character an iron will.

  11. Alexandra was beautiful and charming but also extremely selfish and infinitely difficult to live with and serve due to her stuvvorn unpunctuality and indifference to practical reality including living within her generous means. She was also sinfularls din and probably lowered the Royal Family’s IQ by several points in the next generation. Her eldest son Eddy was distinctly sub-normal and her daughter’s almost frightening cases of arrested development. George V was the the most normal of the lot. Not too bright, but sound enough.

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