I thought it would have been a lot better for taking itself a bit less seriously - even the fun bits, like the gender play with Rizzio, were a bit self-conscious. I'm afraid for all the high-concept artistry of the final meeting, with the two queens suggestively pursuing each other through gauzy bedsheets, the thought 'are they...meeting in a 16th century laundrette? They're meeting in a 16th century laundrette!' irresistibly formed. And I really couldn't work out what was up with Darnley's bum-bags: did costuming chicken out of 1560s puffball breeches and then decide they needed the silhouette after all, or was it actually some unspoken historical in-joke - did the historical Darnley like to keep a lot of ready cash and possessions literally on his person (it seems like foresight uncharacteristic of the utter nincompoop he was), as his son was famous for excessively padded doublets because of a not-altogether unfounded fear of things getting very stabby?