MargoMusing

We are well into the Wars of the Roses now - battles are two-a-penny, Warwick the Kingmaker is busy manipulating things, and foolish, vacillating Clarence is changing sides every five minutes.

And of course, Richard of York's younger son, Richard, is  limping around, dressed entirely in black and soliloquising about his dastardly ambitions, and looking sideways under his eyebrows.

People are getting stabbed and decapitated all over the place, Margaret of Anjou is demonstrating that she is a far better general, and on the whole, better suited than her husband to be a medieval monarch.

Margaret of Anjou (Sophie Okonedo)

It is all extremely well done, and very graphic, in the representation of the sheer, vicsious bloodiness of the Wars of the Roses.

We left the action just after the new King, Edward IV, upsets pretty much everyone by marrying a dowerless, English  widow rather than  making the political marriage arranged for him, and after Margaret and Henry's son is killed.

With this cheerful starting point, we shall be heading into Richard III, the final part of this 'series' of 'The Hollow Crown', next week.