This rather sumptuous historical drama starts off with a caption that tells us we are all taught from history books about men and war. That appears to serve the purpose of excusing what comes next from at attempts to reflect what little is actually known of Katherine Parr. She was the final wife of England's Henry VIII and was known as a woman who favoured the translation of the bible from Latin into English to broaden it's access by the people. She (Alicia Vikander) quickly finds a powerful enemy in Bishop Gardiner (Sir Simon Russell Beale) who strives to prove the point of her friend, the rabble-rouser, Anne Askew (Erin Doherty) that it's important to the clergy and, indeed, to the King himself (Jude Law) that the interpretation of God's word is left to those more qualified - and certainly more adept at controlling the message it might convey! With Askew's life in constant danger, the Queen tries to help and that brings her cat and mouse game with Gardiner to an perilous head for a women married to a distrusting man who still obsesses about having another son as as spare to Prince Edward (Patrick Buckley). What Karim Aïnzou has managed here is to create something that looks authentic. The attention to the detail is lavish and depicts court life in quite a potent fashion. From singing to savagery in seconds being quite the norm. The thrust of the story itself, though, is thin…

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