Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Selin Hizli, Carl Prekopp, Hattie Morahan, Ian Dunnet Jnr, Simon Scardifield, Jasmine Hyde, Chris Lew Kum Hoi.
You cannot keep a bad girl, a wronged woman, a misunderstood and vengeful female down for long, for the moment you think they are defeated, they rise up more powerful, more commanding than ever, and one of the finest examples of that in literature is of Milady de Winter.
The most beguiling adversary to Alexandre Dumas heroic musketeers, is once more bought to life via the imagination and respect of Lucy Catherine as she brings the protagonist of her own affairs and the most resilient of characters back from her supposed death at the hands of the hangman and his noose.
Following on from the two part series in 2023 on B.B.C.’s Drama On 4 production arm, Lucy Catherine continues the tale of the disaffected soul as she is once more used by Cardinal Richelieu and placed within the heart of French society as a companion, a spy, to the formidable Marie de Medici, played with incredible depth by Hattie Morahan, and shown that whilst kings and emperors rule the land, it is to people such as Richelieu that the world bends its true knee.
With Carl Prekopp and Ian Dunnet Jnr returning to their respective roles as the Cardinal and King Louis, it is to Selin Hizli to take up the role of the erstwhile and cunning Milady de Winter, and whilst stepping into the boots of Anjana Vasan could be considered fated, it is to Ms. Hizli’s superb fierceness as she inhabits the role that the sequel, the third and fourth parts of this enthralling tale come together and find the dynamic and polish required to further the listener’s interest.
The three main players, Milady, the Cardinal, and Marie de Medici weave calculating shrewdness and political will with a drama that captivates the soul, that picks at the relationship between state, the church, and its citizens with an observation that would surely have made Dumas congratulate Ms. Catherine, the dealings of the intricate pleasures, of punishing those who dare stand in the way of the sword and the principle, all this is made possible by resurrecting one of literature’s greatest female antagonists, and perhaps only beaten by Lady Macbeth herself in terms of female characters written before the 20th Century.
A sublime listen, writing executed with finesse and insight, a return that surely will bring more from Lucy Catherine in time.
Ian D. Hall