Shakespeare Magazine 9
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
BillI <br />
Queen Elizabeth I<br />
(Helen McCrory) faces<br />
a dastardly Spanish plot.<br />
Meanwhile, tension is growing between<br />
Elizabeth I (Helen McCrory) and King Philip<br />
II of Spain (Ben Willbond). The latter hatches<br />
a plot to kill the Queen and sails to England<br />
with a gang of villainous ne’er do wells. Before<br />
long, poor hapless Bill, his mentor Marlowe<br />
(Jim Howick), and long-suffering Anne are<br />
embroiled in the evil scheme. The play’s the<br />
thing to kill a queen, and Bill’s work is hijacked<br />
by the Spanish and their new accomplice the<br />
Earl of Croydon (Simon Farnaby).<br />
Even though the film is, of course, full of<br />
inaccuracies and anachronisms (the scheme to<br />
kill Queen Elizabeth resembles the gunpowder<br />
plot that was aimed at her successor, for<br />
example) it’s also rife with nerdy easter eggs.<br />
Many of <strong>Shakespeare</strong>’s great works are quoted<br />
directly, and one of the funniest lines comes<br />
from Kit Marlowe arranging a meet-up at The<br />
Bull’s Head in Deptford. “It’s quite safe,” he<br />
says confidently.<br />
It’s silly, very silly, and there’s no time<br />
to catch your breath between jokes. At one<br />
point, on a beach strewn with bodies and with<br />
fear of a murderous regicidal plot seizing the<br />
country, Walsingham declares “The game is<br />
<br />
SHAKESPEARE magazine 35