Cromwell

Cromwell (1970) is Ken Hughes' British historical drama you can watch online on iFILM. It traces how a modest landowner from East Anglia, sick of a corrupt court, rose against his own king and tore the country in two.

Richard Harris plays Oliver Cromwell as a man who meant to sail his family off to a new life, then got pulled instead into Parliament's collision with Charles I. Alec Guinness makes the king no cartoon villain but a stubborn soul convinced his crown came straight from God. Between them England comes apart — sermons, backroom bargains, muddy battlefields, and finally a trial whose verdict reshaped what a monarch could ever claim to be. Look for a young Timothy Dalton in an early role.

Three and a half centuries on, the argument over power and conscience still bites. The film bends its dates for dramatic punch, yet it nails the spirit of the split, and its period wardrobe carried off an Oscar. It's a treat for anyone who loves a costume drama and seventeenth-century English history. Stream Cromwell (1970) online on iFILM.