TV programs worth watching
Sun May 23 — Sat May 29

Programs about Royalty have been popping up like weeds all 
year, but this week there are no less than three of these 
excrescences being aired, plus one featuring the King of 
Prussia.

When I asked an ABC publicist why we were being inundated with 
the tedious doings of Royals past and present, she suggested that 
it might be connected to the "excitement" over the Danish Royal 
wedding. That is possible, of course, even though the event in 
question is of cosmic insignificance.

I think the more likely reason for the spate of Royal programs is 
the desire of British producers to make programs they can either 
sell to the US or get US networks to invest in. And US TV has 
always been partial to programs about people who live in palaces.

Historical programs about Royals have all the ingredients that US 
TV holds dear: splendid locales, lavish sets, colourful costumes, 
plenty of attractive bosoms on display and storylines that 
require lots of bed hopping by all the main characters.

The first of these efforts was actually scheduled for screening 
on May 9 but got rescheduled after The Guardian went to 
press. It is Britain's Real Monarch (ABC 7.30pm Sunday).

In my original review, I wrote that "The British 'Royal Family' 
is an offensively expensive waste of space, a medieval hangover 
kept in place by capitalism to give the ruling class a spurious 
legitimacy and to provide diversion for the despised masses."

I noted that "In Britain's Real Monarch, Tony Robinson, 
better known as Baldrick in Black Adder, asserts that the present 
Queen, Liz Windsor, is not the 'true' monarch of Britain. That 
dubious honour apparently belongs to some guy living in the NSW 
town of Jerilderie.

"Baldrick's (sorry, Robinson's) basis for this curious assertion 
is evidence 'suggesting' that Edward IV was illegitimate. Shock. 
Horror. Yawn."

I then gave details of Edward IV's origins, marriage, children 
etc. If you are interested it's in issue 1181 of this paper.

I concluded that "Robinson's evidence may be suggestive but it 
seems highly unlikely. More importantly, what does it matter?

"I suspect that Guardian readers, for example, couldn't 
give a toss about whether the present British monarch is 'the 
true Queen' or not. No matter how inbred her blue blood might be, 
she and all the rest of the so-called 'Royals' should be tipped 
out into the street and told to go find jobs."

I offered the thought that "that might even make a good reality 
TV show".

As soon as Britain's Real Monarch ends, there is barely 
time for a couple of ABC commercials before we are thrown into 
Charles II, The Power And The Passion (ABC 8.30pm Sunday), 
a "two-part drama set in the corridors and bedrooms of power 
during the reign of the notorious 'Merry Monarch' [Charles II]".

The death of Oliver Cromwell in 1658 was followed by the collapse 
of the Commonwealth and the restoration of the Stuarts, 
specifically Charles II, to the English throne.

Let me quote A L Morton's A People's History of England on 
this subject: "The urban middle classes had proved too weak by 
themselves to afford a permanent basis for a government [under 
the Commonwealth] and the restoration of 1660 was in effect a re-
combin-ation of class forces to establish a government more in 
harmony with the real distribution of strength.

"It was less a restoration of the monarchy than a new compromise 
between the landowners and the upper-classes in the towns."

Despite appearances, it was not a complete counter-revolution. As 
Morton points out "Charles I had claimed to be King by Divine 
Right: Charles II knew that he was King by permission of the 
landlords and merchants in Parliament and could be dismissed as 
easily as he had been summoned.

"The only way in which the Crown could secure any measure of real 
power was by exploiting the antagonisms between the various 
sections of the ruling class. Charles was quite ready to do this, 
but, for the moment, he kept his intentions to himself."

There is surely the stuff of real intrigue and drama here, but 
you won't find that in Charles II, The Power And The 
Passion, which is sadly one more conventional costume saga 
lacking any genuine historical insights.

Alignments of class forces do not figure very prominently in 
The Boy Who Would Be King (ABC 9.30pm Wednesday), the 
second program this week about Charles II.

A documentary, with contributions from Charles II biographer, 
Lady Antonia Fraser, this program makes excuses for Charles' 
amoral behaviour while in exile (and afterwards) and tells us, 
yet again, that he "became known as 'the merry monarch' and was a 
welcome change from the joyless Puritan years following the 
English Civil War".

Not good enough; in fact, not nearly good enough.

The King of Prussia, Frederick the Great, features in the German 
four-part drama series Between Love and Duty (SBS 7.30pm 
Sundays), although he is a supporting character: the hero of this 
18th Century saga is Baron Friedrich von der Trenck, soldier, 
adventurer, military hero and relentlessly persecuted lover.

I was not sent a preview tape so I have not seen it and can only 
tell you, for what it is worth, that it is Germany's most 
expensive historical television drama ever.

Nor have I seen The Big Picture: Who killed Marilyn Monroe? 
(ABC 8.30pm Wednesday). The ABC says it is "definitive" and 
claims that it "uses new documents and interviews with crucial 
witnesses to unlock the truth behind her tragic demise".

Personally I doubt it, but I will be interested to see what it 
does have.

The latest no-longer-young actress to take on the role of senior 
police officer, after the likes of Pauline Quirk and Helen 
Mirren, is Caroline Quentin, star of Men Behaving Badly, 
Jonathan Creek, etc.

In the new two-part Granada series Blue Murder (ABC 8.30pm 
Fridays) she plays newly-promoted Manchester DCI Janine Lewis. As 
she tells her son, "people commit murders and I catch them".

The program balances a well-observed police investigation with 
Janine's efforts to cope as a working mum (she has three kids and 
another on the way, and a husband she's thrown out for playing 
around — in her bed).

Caroline Quentin is excellent in the part and the series is a 
good "police procedural". This first two-part series has the look 
of a pilot so we maye see more episodes of the cases of DCI 
Lewis.