Mrs. Brown

John Madden, UK 1997, 103 mins

"Why are you poaching on Royal land?" "Because we've come up in the world!"

The Queen's nerves were in an extremely fragile state, and let's be honest, any woman who sleeps with a plaster cast of her dead husband's hand under her pillow needs all the help she can get. Victoria was living in cloud cuckoo land, surrounded by fools, fawning family and robotic servants: "You could buy that lot for garden ornaments and still get change from ten guineas" (John Brown). The Queen's mourning lasted for many years; she even swam in a black bathing costume. Dissolution of the monarchy was whispered and the Republican movement grew daily.

Then Her Majesty's Highland Servant, John Brown, burst in on this melancholy scene like a cat among the royal pigeons - treating Victoria like a human being rather than some depressive deity: "It is the Queen's sorrow which keeps her secluded" (John Brown). Although the court and government knew Brown's influence was instrumental in bringing her out of mourning, they worried that this Scots hardman was getting too close to her ­ perhaps even intimately ­ and influencing the destiny of the Empire.

Billy Connolly's casting was inspired. Like Brown he came from humble origins and developed a soft spot for royalty in later life. Oscar-nominated Judi Dench, who as a child also enjoyed the privilege of servants, plays an admirable cold fish of a Queen.

Undeniably the best film about Queen Victoria ever made. Even republicans will be amused.

Allan Foster
EUFS Programme 1998-99