Mrs Brown

Mrs Brown (1997) is a British-Irish historical drama directed by John Madden — stream it online on iFILM. Judi Dench plays Queen Victoria in the years after Prince Albert's death: the court is frozen, parliament is growing impatient, and the Queen refuses to be seen in public.

The man who pulls her back is John Brown, a blunt Scottish groom played by Billy Connolly. He doesn't bow and scrape. He tells her when she's wrong. That directness, so out of place in a world built on ceremony, becomes exactly what Victoria needs — and what the aristocracy cannot stand. Rumors of an improper attachment spread through London. The press runs cartoons. A monarch who relies on a servant raises constitutional eyebrows. The scandal, when examined closely, turns out to be about something more complicated than romance.

Dench earned an Academy Award nomination and a BAFTA for the role, and Connolly, known for comedy, plays Brown with complete seriousness. The film works as both a court intrigue and a quiet character study of two people who, for entirely different reasons, have nothing left to pretend. Watch Mrs Brown (1997) online on iFILM.