Emilia Schüle and Louis Cunningham as the Dauphine and Dauphin
(Picture: BBC / Capa Drama / Banijay Studios France / Les Gens / Canal+ / Caroline Dubois)An eight-part Canal+ and BBC period drama about the iconic French queen Marie Antoinette, filmed at the Palaces of Versailles and Fontainebleau was always going to set expectations high. Then when the production has caused uproar for being obscene and/or feminist, with a backlash from some historians to boot, this anticipation was only going to reach trembling point.
But the new series, Marie Antoinette, never reaches its scandalous potential. There’s a tremendous gap between all the hyped chatter and the reality of this slightly fusty series, which perhaps unfairly sets the new show up to be an inevitably disappointing watch.
