Versailles
DRAMA BBC IPLAYER (BOX SET)
If there’s a Bridgerton-shaped hole in your viewing, try this drama which formerly aired on BBC2. It follows ‘Sun King’ Louis XIV’S elaborate plan to base his court at Versailles, complete with a new palace. ‘A king without a castle is no king at all,’ his late mother warns Louis in a feverish dream. His ministers are aghast at being stuck in a ‘backwater’, not least because there’s always someone planning to kill Louis. You’ll have to concentrate at first as lots of the men look quite similar (a bit like the Cowardly Lion from The Wizard of Oz, which was obviously a look in 17th-century France) but thankfully George Blagden and Alexander Vlahos stand out as Louis and his brother Philippe. ★★★★ JP