To Her, With Love
by Margaret Moser
W e have been devoting much of our time lately to studying subjects once believed left behind with those schoolgirl days of telling tales and biting nails. Maybe it's the result of watching The Celts on video (see "Scanlines") for review, maybe it's the Irish language classes we have been attending, maybe it's spring and Scarborough Faire is imminent. Maybe it's having all that history at our fingertips via the Internet and television or new membership in the Gaelic League. Maybe it's just the upcoming Royals week on A&E's Biography series that's making us speak in the silly royal "we."
The radiant Diana, Princess of Wales. As long as I write this column, you will read about Diana, because I adored her.The anglophilia began last week with A&E's three-part series Tom Jones. The good-humored campaign for the network's production used singer Tom Jones' "It's Not Unusual" as a send-up for its adaptation of the Henry Fielding novel most of us read in high school. Since we hate the inconvenience of miniseries stretched over several nights, preferring to tape them and watch them in one fell swoop, it's worth noting that starting Friday night, all three parts repeat consecutively. In Tom Jones, Part 1 (4/10, 9pm; A&E; repeats midnight) of the bawdy classic introduces the exuberant Max Beesley as the roguish Tom. In Part 2 (4/11, 9pm; repeats midnight) Tom sacrifices his beloved Sophia, and in Part 3 (4/12, 9pm, repeats midnight), all's well that ends well with a roll in the hay.
Thus the stage is set for Royals week on Biography. In a move that will doubtlessly surprise many, the first subject is the Princess of Wales in Diana: The True Story, (4/12, 7pm). This special, two-hour Biography is billed as the "first complete and balanced picture of the Princess of Wales, with candid comments from people who knew her best." Since there's been no lack of tributes or memoirs to the late princess, it will be interesting to see how A&E, always handmaidens to the crown, prepares its post-mortem on one of this century's most beloved figures.
Still, the press materials for this show emphasize the candid, frank, and sometimes critical comments from the close circle of friends interviewed for this new portrait. Since the delicate but controversial nature of the circumstances surrounding her death created a heartfelt but subdued international response, Diana has remained both an enigma and an icon. According to this Biography, she felt betrayed by the royal family, who acknowledged Prince Charles' longtime affair with Camilla Parker-Bowles but ignored the princess' pain over it. No wonder she found more moral and spiritual support from charity work as well as sexual freedom in affairs.
On Monday, Prince Charles: Born to Be King is the subject of Biography(4/13, 7pm; repeats 11pm). This portrait promises to "answer the question on everybody's mind: What's Prince Charles really like?" Is that really the question on peoples' minds and not "why did you treat that sweet, beautiful young woman who obviously adored you with such utter contempt and disrespect until she gave up?" Of course, that is a question perhaps better aimed at his mother on Tuesday's Biography, Elizabeth II(4/14, 7pm; repeats 11pm),which features archival film and photos documenting the monarch's life. Regardless of which side of the flag the loyalties lie, Queen Elizabeth's reign will remain a landmark one, if only because she was forced to acknowledge that scandal is not a divine right.
Miss the Diana Biography on Sunday? Fret not, it comes on again Wednesday (4/15, 7pm), giving us plenty of time to look up some of those Diana tribute sites on the Internet. (There is a Stop Paparazzi site established in memory of Diana that urges boycott of everything from People magazine to Entertainment Tonight but in its rallying cry to ban invasion of privacy, the address for the page's contact is "squidge.com" – "Squidgy" being the pet name used by Diana for her lover James Hewitt. That bit of information was never revealed through legit sources, only by publicized transcripts of an illegally recorded phone call. Can we say "hypocrite"?)
Going back a few decades to another royal scandal, Thursday's Biography looks at Edward VIII: The Traitor King (4/16, 7pm). This is another two-hour episode, one that suggests Edward abdicated the throne not so much for "the woman [he] loved" but because his pro-Fascist politics were unpopular, and his affection for Wallis Warfield Simpson was an excuse to play political chess with a not-too-bright king.
We are most amused to see the misunderstood Queen Victoria: Royal Family Values (4/17, 7pm; repeats midnight) finish out Biography's royal flush. Victoria is distinguished as being the monarch who enjoyed the longest reign in British history – 64 years – but she is more notoriously known as the conservative but popular queen whose name became synonymous with straitlaced morals. The real Victoria was less prim than her husband Prince Albert, whose own very conservative views became Victoria's later in life.
Looking for something royal but a little closer to home? Tune into A&E's long-running series America's Castles: The Anglophiles (4/17, 8pm), following Biography that Friday night. This segment visits American homes that imported parts of European castles, including England's Salisbury House, and Agecroft Hall, built in the 1400s.
We shall return next week.
