Elizabeth and Essex

RODERIC DUNNETT on Phyllida Lloyd's Gloriana for BBC TV

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Elizabeth's spoken words, spat out by a dark-clad Barstow following the drastic decision are of striking power. If Randle's words (off screen, reciting the letter) come perilously close to Ivor Novello, her own cut to the quick. To Cecil, seeking a decision on the succession (Phyllida Lloyd imaginatively keeps him off-camera at this point, thus prolonging the Queen's, and Barstow's, final isolation), she lets rip : 'I can by no means endure a winding sheet held up before my eyes while yet I live'. By the close, at its best, Britten imparts to Elizabeth something of the power of a Boris Godunov. It's devastating stuff, a gripping psychological thriller, and not to be missed.

Dame Josephine Barstow as Queen Elizabeth I. Photo: Stephen Vaughan