The Devil's Whore
The Devil's Whore
During Oliver Cromwell's puritanical regicidal revolution, the fictional aristocratic manor lady Angelica Fanshawe follows her heart rather than political loyalty in the bloody conflict between royalists and Roundheads, and later among Crowell's triumphant, soon rivaling protestant followers. For love, she commits to several parties.
匚卂尺ㄥ reviewedMarch 26, 2025
The design, locations, and photography in this series are enchanting, with an unusual use of colour, and key moments of the drama are so evocatively filmed that it feels like you are watching a moving artwork at times, but in a way that adds significance to the story rather than distracting from it. I looked forward to each episode as a highlight of the viewing week when it was showing on tv, and was mesmerised by Peter Capaldi's performance as the doomed king, and was extremely disappointed when his character was killed so early on (at least it felt that way to me).
This series is a powerful antidote for anyone who is bored and alienated by the cliches of Hollywood-style cinema and I would recommend it to anyone who likes a rattling good story. However, a few things grated.
Although acting brilliantly at some points, I felt John Simm was miscast and that the part of Sexby needed someone bigger (sorry John). Something about his portrayal didn't quite feel authentic to the period, or perhaps to my assumptions about the period. However his portrayal of the emotional development of his character was quite convincing, and tragic, and the nature and loyalty of his love for Angelica, and his portrayal of these feelings, was excellent, and never overdone. His constancy slowly emerged as the backbone of the story in a very satisfying way as it was buffeted and tested by circumstance, and the tragedy of his story and the damage he suffered were powerfully portrayed.
Andrea Riseborough was also brilliant at times, although there were a couple of moments where I was distracted because to me she sounded very like her recent portrayal of Margaret Thatcher (it's the voice). There were also gaps in the characterisation - something in the Riseborough character was missing and although it was clear how circumstance dictated her different phases, eg the gun-toting highway-man phase, the digger phase and the "mad-about-the-boy/betrayal" phase, it was hard to feel the emotional continuity and development and I don't know if this was the fault of the script, the acting or whatever (possibly just me - way too picky). I didn't get the feeling that I knew her, that I understood her as well as I did Sexby, although his character was perhaps more straightforward. I wondered if this was because had exaggerated aspects of the story for dramatic effect at the expense of consistency in the character, or had tried too hard to make it "relevant" to our own times and issues. Or maybe the story was too condensed (I for one would have been delighted to have had more episodes to watch).
My only other niggle is that, for someone not familiar with the history of the time, I found the characters and political distinctions in the first couple of episodes hard to get keep track of and to understand, but this gives me all the more reason to watch it a second time.
In the end, it left me wanting more, because it was such a great story, with such an excellent cast, a captivating portrayal of place and time, and a plot that appeared to have grown out of the unpredictability of real-life rather than the demands of cinematic cliches. It was very involving and I would recommend it to anyone who likes a bit of intellectual challenge in their viewing, along with stunning visual effect and the occasional shock (it is not for children as the occasional portrayal of violence is explicit, ugly, awkward, and disturbing and therefore quite convincing I will never forget that sword scene).
I loved this series, and I wish there could be more.