Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Cast: Tom Burke, Santiago Cabrera, Howard Charles, Luke Pasqualino, Alexandra Dowling, Ryan Gage, Tamla Kari, Matthew McNulty, Hugo Speer, Rupert Everett, Matt Stokoe, Ian McKee, Stephen Walters, Ross O’Hennesy, Thalisa Teixeira, Andrew Turner, Allan Corduner, Leah Haile, Tom Morley, Naomi Radcliffe, Ernesto Cekan, Christian Dunckley Clark.
To Play The King takes a certain amount of guts, not everybody can pull off the regal instability needed to carry the office, to sit in impatient martyrdom for the revolution to take the crown. Whether in gown and garter, wig and royal trappings, or simply the modern equivalent of the suit and red leather case in which the nation’s short and long term prospects are unfolded like a card player holding all the aces; To Play The King is a dangerous game, for somebody, somewhere will always be out to steal the jewel laden cap.
The political instability of Europe, of the U.K., is such that it only takes a resignation in the highest quarter to set teeth on edge and yet we, hopefully, are far cry from the volatile nature of 17th Century France in which the balance between the country was held open like a festering and pus driven wound. The lavish parties, the sensationalism of Court life under a dying Louis was the closed fist to the hungry, starving and the refugees of a war against France’s continental neighbour Spain.
It was a hazardous and pivotal moment in Europe and The Musketeers, perhaps with a certain degree of understanding, may have questioned which side they were actually fighting for. Their oath belonged to the King, however their eyes, their senses, as this dramatic and well written episode bears out, saw the treacherous blossoming of truth starting to take root and the flourish of anarchy, state driven, state blessed, come home and question the point of leadership.
The episode itself is captured by the nobility of d’Artagnan, Luke Pasqualino given a chance to shine as a Musketeer away from the group of four, and the duplicity of Rupert Everett’s Marquis de Feron. The clash of what it means to be noble and to have noble’s great cause thrust upon you is highlighted in the actions of these two men.
If the indications of what dignity and regret can offer a man then the pain on d’Artagnan’s face as he realises the consequence of his actions is to television as a proclamation to the masses of what they can actually achieve is. It is a cruel trick that nature plays on the strong at heart and one that The Musketeers embodies superbly.
An episode of grace and righteousness, To Play The King is not a game the weak hearted should ever attempt to be part of.
Ian D. Hall