What to watch
Elizabeth I’s Secret Agents BBC TWO, 9.00PM
It sometimes seems as though the only parts of history we ever see on UK documentaries are Tudor England and the Second World War. That said, the opening episode of this new three-part series about diplomacy and deceit in the courts of Elizabeth I and her successor James I manages to make a familiar subject feel both fresh and informative. It helps that there are none of the re-enactments that have clogged up recent documentaries. Instead, we are treated to brief flashes of vivid character portraits – Kate Maltby succinctly notes of Mary Queen of Scots that she was “ill-educated, impulsive, romantic, proud and short-sighted” – and five historians (including an entertaining Lisa Hilton) giving their opinion on events.
At the heart of this world of “mirrors within mirrors and rooms within rooms” is William Cecil, spymaster supreme and creator of what is described as “the world’s first secret service”. For over 30 years the shrewd, subtle Cecil manipulated events in Elizabeth’s court, his threads of power stretching from the highest families of the land to the teaming backstreets of London. Yet not even he was immune from danger, as this film makes clear. Sarah Hughes make-up to blend in with the community. There she learns what life is like for the group of people with whom she almost never mixes.