‘Becoming Elizabeth’: Mary Tudor Demands Elizabeth Side Against the Family (VIDEO)
Mary Tudor isn’t so keen about Catherine Parr and Thomas Seymour’s hasty marriage. In this exclusive sneak peek from Becoming Elizabeth Episode 2, airing Sunday, June 19, Elizabeth Tudor (Alicia von Rittberg) is caught between her devoutly Catholic sister, Mary (Romola Garai), and Catherine (Jessica Raine) and Thomas (Tom Cullen), as Mary demands she leave and side with her against their brother Edward.
Speaking in a secluded, dimly lit hallway, Mary urges her sister not to trust their step-parents. “Catherine, I once too thought wise and good and a friend,” she says. “But then look how she mocks our father’s memory with that man. I feel sick of what I hear about them both, what I have seen. You are to leave.” Unbeknownst to her, they were not alone in the corridor.
“The King does so love his nuanced religious commentary,” Thomas says as he approaches the women, adding, “Are we angry, Mary, about my marriage?”
“Sir, I have no opinion on who or what you marry. You are of no consequence to me,” she shoots back. “It’s who my father’s widow marries that I have an opinion on.”
“Those two things have converged upon me, daughter,” Thomas replies, which angers the eldest Tudor daughter.
The period drama is set after the death of King Henry VIII, long before young Elizabeth ever ascended the throne. In the years between her father’s death and the beginning of her reign, Elizabeth was “an orphaned teenager who became embroiled in the political and sexual politics of the English court,” Starz teases.
The death of the king places his 9-year-old son Edward (Oliver Zetterström) on the throne of England. A dangerous scramble for power ensues when Elizabeth, Edward, and Mary, find themselves pawns in the game for control of England between the country’s great families and the powers of Europe.
Becoming Elizabeth is created award-winning playwright and television screenwriter Anya Reiss (Spur of the Moment, The Acid Test), who also serves as executive producer with The Forge’s George Ormond (National Treasure, Great Expectations) and George Faber (Shameless, The White Queen) and Lisa Osborne (Little Dorrit, Man in an Orange Shirt) serving as producer.
Becoming Elizabeth, Sundays, 9/8c, Starz
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