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myth of English national superiority, as set against what many view as
the failures of Mary’s reign.2 This paper seeks to address this issue of
marginalisation and mythologisation as it appears in historical film, fo-
cusing specifically on films and TV series produced from the early
1970s onwards.

2. Mary vs. Elizabeth in Film and TV
All the films and TV series focusing on the story of Mary Stuart that
are discussed here accord great significance to her cousin Elizabeth. In
certain cases, such as in Gunpowder, Treason and Plot (2004), Eliza-
beth herself is situated more in the background, whereas in other in-
stances her role is much more prominent, even on a par with that of
Mary. As Walker states in her book The Elizabeth Icon, even if Eliza-
beth herself is not the focus of a film production, she is “very much
the axis around which the characters turn” (Walker 2004: 186).
Bethany Latham’s argument echoes this, as she holds that films about
Mary “are often just as much about Elizabeth as they are about Mary”
(Latham 2011: 47). This classification very much applies to Mary
Queen of Scots (1971), in which Vanessa Redgrave takes the role of
Mary and Glenda Jackson that of Elizabeth I. Here, the importance ac-
corded to the role of Elizabeth, brilliantly played by Jackson, who ar-
guably steals the scene (she is seen by some to overshadow Red-
grave’s Mary),3 results in the fact that Mary is to some degree margin-
alised while actually being the main subject of the film. Her story
ultimately becomes a story of failure as she is outmanoeuvred by the

2 Indeed, the representation of the astute and superior Elizabeth and the emotional
and politically weak Mary has remained surprisingly unchanging and stereotypi-
cal in the filmic portrayals and adaptations discussed here despite the significant
shifts that have taken place since the 1970s in the political and cultural dynamics
of Scotland and England. These shifts involve, for instance, the devolving of
legislative powers to a separate Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh (from 1999),
along with an increased awareness of the problematics of Scottish cultural iden-
tity within a British framework as well as increased recognition of Scottish litera-
ture and culture in a British, European and global context. However, these issues,
along with the specific cultural-historical contexts of the films and TV series ad-
dressed in this article would need to be discussed in much more detail and in
greater depth than the length of this article allows for.
3 See, for example, Ford and Mitchell (2009: 146), and Guy (2009: 148). This view
is also echoed in Kearsten’s review of the film: “Jackson’s performance is un-
paralleled, and she walks away with the show” (Kearsten 2009: n.p.).