Mary & George

Available on NOW TV and Sky Atlantic

D.C. Moore’s delightfully lewd Mary & George provides plenty of the political machinations that were absent from the third and final season of The Great, another show we recently reviewed which examines an outsider’s improbable rise to power. That being said, the ascension of Mary Villiers and her son George to the inner circle of the Jacobean monarch James VI and I is a decidedly crasser tale than that of Catherine the Great, which perhaps renders the comparison null and void.

Nonetheless, history buffs are sure to either revel or recoil at Moore’s creative adaptation of Benjamin Wooley’s book The King’s Assassin, which recounts how the titular characters of this series manipulated their King to enhance their standing within society. In the case of George, here played by The Idea of You heart-throb Nicholas Galitzine, this entailed an illicit affair with James that allegedly played a determining role in him becoming the 1st Duke of Buckingham. 

However, the driving force behind that quasi-coup was Mary, who is brought to life via a typically show-stealing turn from Julianne Moore. The presence of the Academy Award-winning actor definitely gives Mary & George a prestige drama vibe that it perhaps would not otherwise have, although there are some superb performers amongst its supporting cast, including Tony Curran, Mark O’Halloran, Adrian Rawlins, and the always excellent Niamh Algar. 

Admittedly, the incessant bonking and backstabbing that characterises Mary & George does begin to feel a tad repetitive by the time we reach its endpoint, but it always remains an aesthetic triumph and one of the most well-acted shows of the year.