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INGIBJÖRG ÁGÚSTSDÓTTIR

Milli mála 7/2015

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manipulated through Elizabeth’s influence and hold on the Scottish
nobility.
BBC’s TV drama series Elizabeth R (1971) was produced slightly
earlier in the same year as Mary Queen of Scots and here Glenda Jack-
son also plays the role of Elizabeth. One episode out of six, “Horrible
Conspiracies,” focuses on Mary Stuart, the Babington plot and Mary’s
execution. This film’s Mary, here played by Vivian Pickles, is again
shown to be very different from Elizabeth; as Ford and Mitchell rightly
point out, the separate, juxtaposed scenes that focus alternately on
Mary and Elizabeth make clear “the disparities in their personalities”
(Ford and Mitchell 2009: 264). Most strikingly, however, she differs
from most other portrayals in exhibiting none of the physical beauty
and charm that the historical Mary is so famous for, and in having little
personal allure. Instead, Mary is shown as complaining, quarrelsome
and naïve, with a brooding and frowning look. Great emphasis is
placed on representing her as a tireless schemer and plotter (not
unique in representations of Mary, as discussed below), while she is
also portrayed as simple enough to trust other people just because
they profess Catholicism, as in her dealings with Gilbert Gifford, who
pretends to be sympathetic to her cause but is in reality Walsingham’s
agent sent to entice Mary into becoming involved in the Babington
Plot.6 Just as in Mary Queen of Scots, Mary is here portrayed as Eliza-
beth’s impulsive, emotionally driven opposite. Ironically, the contrast
between the feminine and emotional Queen of Scots and the mascu-
line, politically astute Gloriana is driven even further home through
Mary’s assessment of her own character: “I know that I am a creature
of impulse, seldom thinking before I act, driven on by passions, de-
lighting in the unexpected and bored by sensible caution.” Mary’s
words seem a contrived way to sum up her character and motives for
the viewer, especially as Pickles fails to endow Mary’s character with
the spirit that her words indicate is such a significant part of her per-
sonality.

6 The Babington Plot of 1586 was an unsuccessful Catholic conspiracy aimed at as-
sassinating Elizabeth I and installing Mary Queen of Scots on the throne of Eng-
land. Its chief conspirator was a young Catholic nobleman, Sir Anthony Babing-
ton.