| Image Alt: | Series titles over a background of carved roses |
| Genre: | Drama Historical fiction |
| Composer: | John Lunn[1] |
| Country: | United Kingdom |
| Language: | English |
| Num Episodes: | 10 |
| List Episodes: |
|
| Location: | Belgium |
| Budget: | £25 million |
| Runtime: | 580 minutes |
| Company: | Company Pictures[2] Czar Television |
| Network: | BBC One |
| First Aired: | [3] |
| Related: | The White Princess The Spanish Princess The Real White Queen and Her Rivals |
The White Queen is a British historical drama television drama serial based on Philippa Gregory's historical novel series The Cousins' War.[4] The first episode premiered on BBC One on 16 June 2013 in the UK.[5]
The drama is set against the backdrop of the Wars of the Roses and presents the story of the women involved in the long conflict for the throne of England. It starts in 1464; the nation has been at war for nine years fighting over who is the rightful king as two sides of the same family, the House of York and the House of Lancaster, contest the throne. The story follows three women, Elizabeth Woodville (Rebecca Ferguson), Margaret Beaufort (Amanda Hale) and Anne Neville (Faye Marsay), who manipulate events behind the scenes of history to gain power.[6] Elizabeth Woodville is the protagonist in the novel The White Queen, and Margaret Beaufort and Anne Neville are the focus of the novels The Red Queen and The Kingmaker's Daughter; the three characters appear in the three novels that make up the television drama.
The final episode of The White Queen aired on 18 August 2013 and the drama was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc the following day. Two days later, the BBC confirmed that The White Queen was always planned as a miniseries that would not be returning for a second series.[7] However, there were two sequels in 2017 and 2019.
The White Queen was nominated for three Golden Globe Awards, four Primetime Emmy Awards and a People's Choice Award.
The large majority of the cast is British, but since the drama was shot in Belgium, several local actors are featured: Veerle Baetens,[8] Jurgen Delnaet, Joren Seldeslachts, Elsa Houben, Ben Forceville and Ben Van den Heuvel all appear in the serial.[9] Rebecca Ferguson who portrays Elizabeth Woodville, the White Queen, is from Sweden (her mother is originally from England).[10]
The budget was £25 million and took 120 days to shoot, consisting of 250 sets including: dungeons, palaces, castles, 12 state banquets and at least two coronations.[11]
Filming began in September 2012 and lasted until March 2013.[12]
Two versions were made, one for the BBC and a more sexually explicit version for the US.[13]
A companion two-part documentary series, The Real White Queen and Her Rivals, presented by Philippa Gregory, was made to accompany the series. It was broadcast on BBC Two on 17 and 24 July 2013.[14]
The White Queen was filmed on location in Belgium, where several landmarks in Bruges and Ghent represent locations in London and elsewhere:[20]
A number of anachronisms and historical inaccuracies received attention, especially in the costumes and locations used.[21] Pat Stacey of the Irish Evening Herald, said that "the historical howlers are piling up like bodies on a battlefield, week after week", comparing it to the "flaws" spotted by "nitpickers" in Downton Abbey and Foyle's War.[22]
Bernadette McNulty, of The Daily Telegraph, commented that in the final episode, the Battle of Bosworth Field appears to take place in a forest rather than a field. Mary McNamara, of the Los Angeles Times, states that in order to fit thirty years of history into ten episodes, "years collapse into minutes, intricate policy is condensed into cardboard personalities, and the characters are swiftly categorized as good or evil".[23]
Others questioned the depiction of the major characters. Amy Licence, Cecily's biographer, states that Cecily Neville, Duchess of York, is portrayed in the first episode as "straight from the pages of a novel rather than the actual proud aristocrat who asserted her own right to rule".[24] Historian Michael Hicks commented, "They've fiddled with the chronology" but added, "I can see why they decided to restrict the cast of characters, and play up the rivalry between Elizabeth and the Earl of Warwick", and also said "As with Philippa Gregory's source novels, they've done their research".[25]
In response to criticisms of the series being "ahistorical", Gregory stated that
What [BBC One and Starz] wanted was not a historical series based on the documents from the War of the Roses. They wanted my take on it, so that's what they got.[26]
Aneurin Barnard (who played Richard) stated, with regard to inaccuracies,
...the truth can be pretty boring. You have to up the stakes and make something up or twist it to make it a little bit more exciting.[27] [28]
On Metacritic the show has a score of 70 based on reviews from 14 critics.[29]
In the UK the critical reception was described as “mixed at best”[30] and 'mostly scathing'.[31] Sam Wollaston of The Guardian praised the characters, suggesting Janet McTeer (Jacquetta) stole the show. He also praised the romantic elements, commenting "Mmmm, steamy".[32] Gerard O'Donovan of The Daily Telegraph praised the casting of the supporting characters and the exciting "lust and vengeance" fuelling the drama, but objected to the prettified portrayal of 15th century England.[33] The Independents Tom Sutcliffe found it "less historically plausible than Game of Thrones", but concluded that "I’m sure it will give innocent pleasure to many".[34] Barbara Ellen in The Observer, compared the show to "a strange Timotei advert, featuring fornication, shouting, horses, armour", whilst commenting that the sex scenes, toned down in the British version, "were so vanilla, I ended up fancying an ice cream".[35]
Reviewing the final episode for The Daily Telegraph, Bernadette McNulty stated that the series, "fell between two stools—not serious enough for the scholars nor glitzy enough for the Game of Thrones fans".[36] The ratings were however good. The first episode received 6 million viewers, stabilising at around the 4–4.5 million mark from the second episode,[37] [38] although occasionally it dipped below this on first broadcast figures.[39]
The White Queen received generally positive reviews after airing on the Starz network on 10 August 2013. Joanne Ostrow of The Denver Post described the drama as "Sexy, empowering and violent".[40] Linda Stasi of the New York Post agreed that the programme was a hit, saying "The White Queen [is] a royal winner".[41] It was again unfavourably compared to HBO's high budget and fast-paced Game of Thrones. In comparison to Game of Thrones Neil Genzlinger speculated that "even if dragons were allowed, they’d mostly be lounging around and, between bouts of relatively tame dragon sex, talking about eating people rather than actually eating them".[42] The performances of Janet McTeer and James Frain were praised by several American reviewers. Amanda Hale, despite receiving praise for her performance by British reviewers,[43] was unfavourably reviewed by US critic Matthew Gilbert. He said "There were moments when I rolled my eyes—Amanda Hale, as the mother of young Henry Tudor, looks as if she is going to explode with ill intent. Really, her performance could be transposed into a Mel Brooks spoof".[44] Louise Mellor of Den of Geek added "Why does Lady Margaret Beaufort constantly look like she is sucking on a Murray Mint?"[45] TV Guide writer Matt Roush praised Hale's performance as "intense", and favoured the drama, labelling it as "fun", and on a one to ten scale, ranking it at seven.[46]
The White Queen was nominated three times at the 71st Golden Globe Awards, with acting nominations for Ferguson and McTeer and an overall nomination for the miniseries in the Best Miniseries or Television Film category.[47]
The White Queen was nominated for several awards including three Golden Globe Awards, four Primetime Emmy Awards and a People's Choice Award for Favorite TV Movie/Miniseries.
71st Golden Globe Awards (2014)
66th Primetime Emmy Awards (2014)
66th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards (2014)
40th People's Choice Awards (2014)
2014 Saturn Awards – Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films
2014 ASC Award – American Society of Cinematographers
OFTA Television Awards 2014 – Online Film & Television Association
Satellite Awards 2013
| DVD title | Discs | Year | Episodes | DVD release | Notes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Region 1 | Region 2 | Region 4 | ||||||
| The complete series | 4 | 2013 | 10 | 4 February 2014 | 19 August 2013 | n/a | BBC version in region 2 | |
| Blu-ray title | Discs | Year | Episodes | Blu-ray Disc release | Notes | |||
| Region A | Region B | Region C | ||||||
| The complete series | 3 | 2013 | 10 | 4 February 2014 | 19 August 2013 | n/a | BBC version in region B | |
See main article: The White Princess (miniseries). Despite initial plans for a follow-up series, on 20 August 2013 the BBC announced they were not commissioning one, possibly due to the lukewarm reception the series received.[48] However, in October 2013,The Telegraph reported that Starz was planning to develop a sequel miniseries called The White Princess, based on Gregory's 2013 novel of the same name.[49]
Starz CEO Chris Albrecht announced in January 2014 that the network was working with White Queen screenwriter Emma Frost on the project.[50] Starz would produce the White Princess miniseries without involvement from the BBC.[50] Gregory confirmed that the project was underway in August 2015.[51] On 7 February 2016, Gregory announced on Facebook that the sequel was officially confirmed to be in production, with the scripts being written.[52] Production on the eight-episode miniseries began in June 2016.[53] [54] It aired weekly on Starz from 6 April to 4 June 2017.
See main article: The Spanish Princess. On 15 March 2018, Starz announced that it would create a continuation of The White Queen and The White Princess to be titled The Spanish Princess, which would be based on Gregory's novels The Constant Princess and The King's Curse and centre on Catherine of Aragon.[55] It premiered on 5 May 2019.[56]