Mirren was good, but the some of the others were either miscast or just badly directed

Rating: 5/10 (5 February 2007)

The portrayal of living persons with whom we are quite familiar is indeed problematic and presents an extra challenge, but it has to be admitted that at times Tony Blair came over, more often as not, as a sort of Mr. Bean character, Alastair Campbell, Blair's adviser, was depicted as a schoolboy thug out of John Alderton's "Please Sir", Prince Charles was depicted as both a pathetic wimp and a sympathetic softie (Make your mind up, Mr. Frears!), Prince Philip had absolutely no savings graces, and the Queen Mother came across as a gin-swilling pain-in-the-neck. Stephen Frears took great liberties with recent history and assumptions of what really happened, but that I guess, is his prerogative.