It is a story fit for the second Elizabeth, though it has perhaps one minor fault: the first two hours.

Some plucky performance don't manage to embue this historical drama with the regal spectacle the source material deserves.

Anne of the Thousand Days is a stunning-acted, sumptuous, grand-scale widescreen drama of the royal bed chamber and political intrigues that created the Church of England.

As a study of historical figures morbidly clashing over sovereignty, the film is certainly educational and a fine reproduction of 16th-century events.