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Starz delves into royal treachery with ‘The White Queen’


Ed Miller/Starz/Starz

This publicity image released by Starz shows Rebecca Ferguson, left, and Max Irons, in "The White Queen," premiering Saturday at 8 p.m. EDT.

In 1464, a beautiful widow became the first commoner to be crowned queen of England.

England didn’t like it.

Elizabeth Woodville had no 12-carat sapphire ring, no Pippa, no gown from Alexander McQueen. She had two sons without land or title, ties to the treasonous House of Lancaster and a reputation for dabbling in black magic.

The White Queen, the Starz network’s lavish, fast-paced retelling of her story, which begins Saturday, is first and foremost a great excuse to watch pretty people strip off their scratchy medieval clothes. Luckily for us, the 10-part series is also a well-plotted, accurate-enough romantic saga.

With three Philippa Gregory novels as source material, The White Queen, made with the BBC, tells at least that many sides to the story. That format of artful juxtaposition, along with pointedly gory images of battle, replaces any romance-novel sensibilities with a more challenging political narrative.

Like The Other Boleyn Girl, another Gregory adaptation, this is a tale about women, with men serving as the chaotic force they struggle against, all in the name of rising to power. The White Queen spares us any smug pretense of easy peace if women ruled this world.

Currently ruling as the series begins is Edward IV (a sleepy-eyed Max Irons, son of Jeremy), who upsets the monarchy’s apple cart by honoring his secret marriage to Elizabeth Grey, formerly Woodville (Swedish actress Rebecca Ferguson), after a courtship in the woods.

Oscar nominee Janet McTeer is a commanding presence as Elizabeth’s mother, Jacquetta, who turns to the dark arts for a little covert intelligence-gathering. Amanda Hale gives a refreshingly raw performance as “Red Queen” Margaret Beaufort, who gave birth at age 13 to a boy whose legitimate claim to the throne has forced him into exile.

Comparisons to The Tudors, Showtime’s sexy costume series set 50 years and two generations later, are inevitable, and The White Queen invites a few, casting the reliably good James Frain as Richard Neville, better known as “Warwick the Kingmaker,” Edward IV’s string-pulling uncle.

Like The Tudors, The White Queen artfully condenses decades of familial slights and military campaigns.

Every scene delivers a confrontation, and a cast relatively fresh to American eyes prevents any “Mr. Darcy is kissing Hermione!” moments. Hollywood’s new dark-and-dangerous actor, Aneurin Barnard, chillingly nurses the slow paranoia that earned Richard, Duke of Gloucester, his own Shakespeare tragedy.

Through the eyes of Anne, Elizabeth and a Margaret or two, The White Queen excavates women from history’s footnotes so that we can watch them shape England’s future.

The White Queen

7 p.m. Saturday, Starz. 1 hr. With repeats at 8, 9:05 and 10:10 p.m.

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