Why we return to certain stories and how we tell them reveals a lot about our own preoccupations. Another dramatisation of the life of Elizabeth I, BBC1's The Virgin Queen, appeared a couple of weeks ago, adding to Helen Mirren and Cate Blanchett's portrayals of the queen, not counting David Starkey's documentary a few years back. The fascination could be down to the fact that we've had two female leaders in recent times - the monarch and Thatchface. Telling our version of the story of Elizabeth I might help us to think about what happens when females rule. But it's the aspect of the Elizabeth story which keeps getting picked out which is interesting - whether or not she 'done it' - as the title of the BBC version pruriently gestures towards. Personally, I'm getting a little sick of seeing 'Elizabeth's' skirts being pushed up by some impossibly cute Dudley or Devereux. All we can ever ascertain from history is that Elizabeth was never pregnant, and if women have sex they do tend to get pregnant. So she either merrily had sex and was infertile (but do you think she'd have taken the chance?), or she did have sex and was incredibly lucky (again, do you reckon she would have risked a power which rested on her chastity?), or she didn't have sex because she knew that, at that time, sex meant marriage and the subjugation by the man of the woman. Perhaps she saw what a mess her sister got into by marrying Philip of Spain and wanted to avoid that conflict altogether? It's not really so unbelievable that a person of that era would forsake sex to do what they believed was God's duty. It even still happens today. It's us who are completely obsessed with whether she was banging away or not, confused by the fact that she constantly had suitors. Our continual return to the question seems to reveal that we can't get our heads round a woman denying her biology in favour of political power - it's a bit like career-focussed women who decide not to have kids, innit? Maybe that's the post-feminist issue we're really trying to work out by telling and retelling our story of this sixteenth-century queen. It's not even the best bit. At the end of her life she goes mental and sits on the throne with her wrinkled dugs out.
Quick word in the ear of the Top of the Pops producer. If you're going to get either of Jeremy Clarkson's fluffers to present the show, don't choose the older, posher, totally-alien-to-the-kids one. TOTP is becoming embarrassing. The set looks like a vision of the future from the 1980s. In fact I got befuddled at one point with all the neon tubes and jazzy monochrome elements, when A-Ha suddenly came on, and I thought I must have slipped through a wormhole. Now I know Andi Peters' heyday was in the 80s but it must be time for him to hand over the reins of power on this twenty-first century music programme; he hasn't a clue and he's going to ruin an institution if someone doesn't stop him. New blood, fresh ideas, Thursday timeslot, sort it out Beeb.
2 comments:
Bring back Tim Kash! He was the heart and hole of TOTP!!!
The Kashter was a legend in his own family.
Post a Comment