This HBO Historical Drama Won 9 out of 13 Emmys (Including Best Miniseries)

Summary

• HBO's Elizabeth I is nearly 20 years old.
• The limited series has an all-star cast and dominated the Emmy Awards the year after its release.
• The show follows the life and loves of England's most famous queen.

Limited series are all the rage these days. Streaming services are all about the idea of a short-form show that tells a story in exactly the number of episodes it needs, instead of pumping out a new episode once a week, every week.

In the rush of new content, it can be easy to forget that limited series were around long before Netflix, and some of them went criminally unseen when first released.

For that reason, let's all take a moment to recognize the HBO masterpiece Elizabeth I, which turns 20 next year and which you probably didn't see when it first came out.

What's It About?

The show follows the tumultuous reign of Queen Elizabeth I of England (1533 - 1603), whose hold on power was made tenuous by her sex and her refusal to marry.

The first half of the show follows the years of her love affair with the Earl of Leicester (Jeremy Irons). When Elizabeth's advisors try to arrange a political marriage with the French Duke of Anjou, it causes friction between Leicester and the Queen. Meanwhile, tensions with the Spanish cause endless political strife at court.

The second half of the series follows Elizabeth's uneasy affair with the younger Earl of Essex (Hugh Dancy), who just so happens to be Leicester's stepson. By this point Elizabeth's reign is stable enough that she isn't being pressured into marriage. But Essex is power hungry and begins to get restless.

Prestige Television

Although Helen Mirren didn't become a household name until her Oscar win a year later, she was already acting royalty in Britain when Elizabeth I was being put together. Director Tom Hooper (yes, the Tom Hooper of 2019 Cats fame – how the mighty have fallen) once told Variety that they wouldn't have even started production without Mirren attached to play the Virgin Queen.

'She came onboard before the script was written,' Hooper said, 'because the feeling was that it was only worth doing if she would play it.'

Elizabeth I manages to balance the complicated life of a very complicated woman. Mirren's Elizabeth is politically astute but emotionally vulnerable, with a great poker face and the ability to balance the needs of a country against her needs as a woman. There hasn't been another performance like it before or since.

The 2006 Emmy Awards

Elizabeth I dominated the Emmy Awards in 2006, with thirteen nominations and nine wins. The show took home Emmys for Outstanding Miniseries, Outstanding Directing (Hooper), Outstanding Lead Actress (Mirren) and Outstanding Lead Actor (Jeremy Irons). Elizabeth I also beat out the competition for costumes, hairstyling, and art direction among others.

Elizabeth the First has been portrayed by more than a dozen actresses across movies and television, most recently by Margot Robbie in 2018’s Mary Queen of Scots. Perhaps the most iconic performance was that of Cate Blanchett in the 1998 movie Elizabeth, a role she later followed with the sequel Elizabeth: The Golden Age.

However, if you’re looking for the definitive version of Lizzie, our vote has to go to Helen Mirren and HBO’s limited series. When the show first came out, you either caught the broadcast or missed out – but now that we live in a time of streaming, you can discover it any time you like. Time for a historical binge-watch, maybe?

Source: Variety.