To be fair to Sam Spiegel, he didn’t hold the purse strings too tightly on this sumptuous dramatisation of the lives of Czar Nicholas II (Michael Jayston) and his wife Alexandra (Janet Suzman) and it looks almost as stunning as “Doctor Zhivago” (1965). Sadly, though, that look doesn’t translate into anything very compelling to watch as neither lead actor really has what it takes to enliven either their roles or the tumultuous events at this fascinatingly turbulent time in European history. Luck isn’t exactly on the Romanov side right from the start when their only son Alexis is born with haemophilia, the Czarina finds herself under the sinister influence of Rasputin (the reliably hammy Tom Baker) and he finds his nation involved - on the losing side - in a war against Japan in Korea and with a domestic population no longer prepared to automatically accept the divine right of the emperor. What now ensues uses some large-scale, grand, cinematography intertwined with the excellent attention paid to the costume and production designs to depict historical events but I found this really more a victory for style over substance. Sir Larry Olivier can just about carry of his role as his sagely and increasingly frustrated premier Count Witte and Irene Worth always did possess a certain imperiousness that works well here as the Dowager Empress but I struggled with Harry Andrews, Timothy W…

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