Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Cast: Tom Burke, Santiago Cabrera, Howard Charles, Luke Pasqualino, Ryan Gage, Tamla Kari, Alexandra Dowling, Rupert Everett, Hugo Speer, Paul McGann, Matthew McNulty, Sarah Smart, James Callis, Matt Stokoe, Laura Haddock, Olivia Poulet, Thalissa Teixeira, Allan Corduner, Harriet Thorpe, Lucie Cerna, Barbora Cerna, Monika Timkova, David Pearse, Michael Peavoy.
Time is drawing to a close on a dynasty, on a man’s life and for a country, yet for The Musketeers it is business as usual as they are ordered to find the Highwayman who has robbed the Queen of England’s jewels; Paris is starving, the war has eaten away at the confidence in the establishment and treachery is in the air, yet the King’s sister is still a priority where certain thinking is concerned. It is almost as if the writers of the series are openly looking at the state of Britain in the 21st Century and wondering just how far it is heading to the days of pre-revolutionary France.
The Queen’s Diamonds reunites old friends and enemies to the cause of recovering Henrietta Marie’s jewels and loyalty is tested, almost to breaking point, as the four musketeers are divided on the approach to the task and one that is further complicated by the sudden appearance of a friend of Aramis before her wedding day and the return of the cowardly but charming thief Emile Bonnaire, portrayed with great appeal by the superb James Callis, it is almost too much to take in at times that The Musketeers are defending the indefensible whilst still keeping on the correct side of moral admiration.
If there is a complaint of the episode, a small niggle to the drama, it is the lack of screen time given to Paul McGann and his character St. Pierre, an actor who can command an audience’s attention just by the timbre in his voice, should surely be given more time than just being the foil to his future wife’s plotline. It is a shame that such a piece of casting was not given more thought.
The Queen’s Diamonds revels in showing the disunity and backhanders that are possible when a dynasty is on the ropes and whilst France was to survive during the reign of Louis’ son, it nevertheless set the seal with the profligate waste and sense of impending doom which had started to eat away across the channel in the 17th Century back water of England. Television aping reality or reality bending itself to the imagination of the writer, it is all coming to an end for some.
Ian D. Hall