The Queen's Sister
| The Queen's Sister | |
|---|---|
 DVD cover | |
| Written by | Craig Warner |
| Directed by | Simon Cellan Jones |
| Starring | Lucy Cohu Toby Stephens David Threlfall |
| Theme music composer | John Altman |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language | English |
| Production | |
| Producer | Kath Mattock |
| Running time | 96 minutes |
| Original release | |
| Network | Channel 4 |
| Release | 27 November 2005 |
The Queen's Sister is a
Plot
The drama opens with the disclaimer "Some of the following is based on fact. And some isn't". When Archbishop Fisher of the
The turbulent marriage falls victim to Margaret's increased drinking and Tony's indiscreet womanizing. She treats him more like a subject than a spouse, and he eventually moves out. When she is caught in flagrante delicto with the pianist from a restaurant she frequents, she and Tony escape to their hideaway in Mustique and try to present a united front for the press, but their scheme backfires when they are criticized for their lavish lifestyle in the tropics.
To escape the limelight, Margaret invites herself to the country home of her friends Rachel and Curly Burke. There she meets
Margaret's continued drinking, drug-abuse and deepening depression lead to her being hospitalized for several weeks for what is described as "exhaustion". After her release, she returns to Roddy, who announces he is marrying one of his housemates. Margaret departs for Mustique, and in the film's final moments she is seen standing in the surf and pondering her future.
Cast
- Princess Margaret
- Tony Armstrong-Jones
- Prince Philip
- Aden Gillett as Peter Townsend
- Dominic Mafham as Robin Douglas-Home
- Simon Woods as Roddy Llewellyn
- Alex Barclay as Billy Wallace
- Edward Tudor-Pole as Cecil Beaton
- Felicity Montagu as Gillian Fleming
- James Wallace as Sunny Blandford
- Caroline Harker as Rachel Burke
- Sam Spiegel as Professor Pierre Lavalle
- Benjamin Whitrow as Cronin
Critical reception
The show aired on BBC America on 5 March 2006. In his review in Variety, Brian Lowry called the film "engaging if somewhat tawdry" and "occasional fun" and added, "Lucy Cohu does deliver a regal, rollicking performance in the title role ... [She] makes it all worth watching, conveying the contradictions - she can be down to earth and snotty all at once - that surely helped render Margaret an object of fascination in her time. Yet even with its sumptuous production values as Margaret jet-sets her way across the globe, it's a lightweight confection, especially when held up against the BBC's tony track record with historical fare. In other words, some BBC America productions are really outstanding, and some of them aren't."[1]
On the website DVD Talk, Paul Mavis observed, "At times funny and satirical, at other times raunchy and low down, The Queen's Sister is always fast-moving and involving ... Propelling [it] along at breakneck speed is the lusty, vibrant performance by Lucy Cohu ... [who] is really quite affecting."[2]
Awards and nominations
In the 2006
References
External links
- The Queen's Sister at IMDb
