Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Tom Burke, Santiago Cabrera, Howard Charles, Luke Pasqualino, Alexandra Dowling, Ryan Gage, Tamla Kari, Matthew McNulty, Hugo Speer, Rupert Everett, Andre Flynn, Farren Morgan, Simon Startin, Jonny Magnanti, Thalissa Teixeira, Richard Dormer, Lisa McGrillis. Matt Stokoe, Tom Morley, Daniel Brown.

The Musketeers might be steeped in the imagination of Alexandra Dumas, in the traditions of all that went before it, however it cannot be said that the writers of the series have not taken history into account and kept the riveting series in the realms of truth, within the confines of accountability. This is highlighted by the revelation that King Louis, played with deepening satisfaction Ryan Gage, in the episode Brothers In Arms, is suffering from white plague, a medical condition that did eventually kill the real King Louis. It is for this, the gems of reality tucked into arguably the greatest version of Alexandra Dumas’ novel, which makes The Musketeers such a glory filled piece of television.

Dealing between fact and fiction, the weaving of the truth between the boundaries of imagination has always been a conjuring act, a writer must know when to put the detail into the script to make it convincing enough to appease those who adore history but also not waver from the point of the show. It is a fine line that at times and in many other programmes gets lost in the fog between fingers and keyboard.

Brothers In Arms also sees the reality of how war had a demoralising effect upon the returning soldiers to Paris, distraught, forgotten and demoralised, their growing resentment to a monarchy spilling out and verging upon civil war, all these acts culminating, albeit a century away, in the revolution that made madness a sport.

It is in this growing resentment that the four Musketeers bring back to Paris the King’s brother Gaston from exile and the tensions rise still further as secrets are spilled as well as blood of innocent and abandoned soldiers.

Brother’s In Arms is a very good episode in which to appreciate the anger in which revolutions arise, in which to see how the spark of revolution begins and it is one in which Ryan Gage, Rupert Everett and Hugo Speer excel. History may be squeezed by the imagination but a good story will always have the very best of truth within it.

Ian D. Hall.