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Shakespeare Magazine 9

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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

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