Elizabeth I (Season 1)

"Elizabeth I" (2005) is a British historical mini-series you can watch online on iFILM. The two-part Channel 4/HBO production covers the second half of the Queen's reign — the diplomacy, the court manoeuvring and the private life that the crown officially forbade. Tom Hooper directed, five years before "The King's Speech."

Helen Mirren plays an aging Elizabeth without sentimentality: a woman who still commands a room but feels the decades catching up. Jeremy Irons is the Earl of Leicester, the long-standing favourite who is the only man she ever allowed anything close to equality. Hugh Dancy takes on the Earl of Essex later in the story; Eddie Redmayne appears in a supporting role very early in his career.

Mirren took home an Emmy and a Golden Globe for this performance, and the role earns every award. The series reads not as pageant but as a portrait of what fifty years of power does to a person — what it gives and what it quietly removes. Stream "Elizabeth I" (2005) online on iFILM.