After a run of regal shows including ITV’s Victoria, Netflix’s The Crown, BBC’s Versailles and new show King Charles III, Channel 5 is giving flame-haired queen Elizabeth I the docu-drama treatment.
With Lily Cole in the title role as the virgin Queen, the drama retells the life of the famous monarch.
Here’s everything you need to know about the new show.
What’s it about?
A period drama with added intellectual heft, Elizabeth I: Battle for the Throne sees the legendary monarch’s life retold through a combination of narration by experts and reconstructions with actors.
The show will focus on key moments in Elizabeth’s reign including her battle to keep Catholicism from taking over the country.
Who’s in the cast?
Historians Dan Jones and Suzannah Lipscomb will narrate the story, with Lily Cole starring as Elizabeth 1.
The model-turned-actress joins a line of well-known names who have played the queen in the past including Judi Dench, Helen Mirren and Cate Blanchett.
What happens in the episode one?
The first episode centres on Elizabeth I’s formative years, exploring her fractured relationship with her father Henry VIII who had thought Elizabeth would be a boy before she was born.
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Initially deemed illegitimate, she came to the throne after the deaths of her siblings but not before she escaped an execution ordered by her sister.
When is it on?
Elizabeth 1: Battle for the Throne will air on Channel 5 tonight at 9pm.