Mary & George Episodes 1-4 - AD Introduction

Mary & George – Audio Described Introduction (Episodes 1-4)

This audio described introduction to Mary & George provides extended descriptions of the visual elements of the series. The first part focuses on Episodes 1 to 4, with a second part to follow for episodes 5 to 7. The introduction aims to avoid significant spoilers!

Mary & George is a Sky Original miniseries inspired by the non-fiction book The King’s Assassin by Benjamin Wooley, written for television by DC Moore, starring Julianne Moore and Nicholas Galitzine. The series tells the story of Mary Villiers, who ‘moulded’ her son, George, to become a ‘favourite’ and lover of King James, rising from humble beginnings to an influential position in the English court of the early 17^th century. Set against a backdrop of political turbulence and the threat of war, the story spans 36-years of scheming, seduction and bribery, all steeped in the opulent visuals of the Jacobean period.

The series begins in 1592 with Mary Villiers giving birth to a son, in a dingy, candle-lit bedroom where a portrait of her husband, Sir George Villiers, overlooks the four-poster bed. The story quickly moves to 1612; Mary’s son George is twenty years old.

Mary, played by Julianne Moore, is a slim white woman with an oval shaped face, high cheek bones and striking red hair. She has aspirations of grandeur, but admits to being ‘provincial’ on account of having never met the King. Nonetheless, she’s always well turned-out in clothes befitting a woman connected – by marriage, at least – to landed gentry. Her daytime clothes include linen skirts, fitted bodices, tailored embroidered jackets and a feathered velvet hat. For formal occasions she brings out a collection of elegant and striking outfits. At a masqued ball, she pairs a stiff, black mourning dress with a tall hat adorned with pheasant plumage and an upright, white zig-zag edged Medici collar. A larger, lace collar defines the neckline of an emerald green silk gown worn for her first meeting with the King. She wears the same dress for her re-marriage following the death of Sir George early in Episode 1.

The young George, portrayed by Nicholas Galitzine, has thick dark hair, hazel eyes, full lips and a pale, rosy-cheeked complexion. Mary makes no secret of thinking he’s the most handsome and charismatic of her four children. George styles himself with the fashions of the era; a single drop-pearl earring (later swapped for a more unusual cascade of dark gemstones), often worn with a billowing white linen shirt, giving an air of ease and effortlessness. Breeches or hose and heeled court shoes complete the look, emphasising his tall, strong figure. As George rises through the ranks of King James’ court, his clean-shaven face reminds us of his relative youth compared to many of those around him.

George’s siblings are John, Kit and Susan. John, who’s older than George, shares his brother’s dark hair and fair skin, but has deep set eyes and a pronounced lower jaw. He’s well-liked by his mother, but troubled; suffering from episodes of irrational, self-destructive behaviour. Kit is mousy-haired and slight, with a bird-like face. Susan, has inherited her mother’s wavy auburn locks, but not yet learned to tame them.

Mary’s new husband is Sir Thomas Compton – a straight-talking gentleman with a lilting midlands accent, a stocky build and a full grey beard and moustache. Following the marriage, the whole family moves to Thomas’s house, Compton Manor, a three-storey red brick mansion with Dutch-style curved gables, wood-panelled interiors and charming grounds featuring a lake and a woodland. The Villiers family bring some servants with them, including Miss Ashcattle, who’s olive-skinned with a worldly wisdom about her, and the younger Jenny, who’s pale and timid.

The aristocrats and royal courtiers featuring in Episode 1 hail from both sides of the English Channel. Mary sends George to France, for some ‘tuition’; his teacher is Jean; a nobleman who resides in a grand chateau set in extensive landscaped grounds. Jean has olive skin and a thick head of coarse textured, dark curls. He uses his boyish face to his advantage, flashing a cheeky smile at the most opportune moments; instructing his student with a seductive charm.  

Usually accompanied by his personal servant, Vincent, Jean struts coquettishly around the sprawling chateau, whose plethora of adjoining rooms are bright and airy, with high ceilings and dozens of paintings framed in gold leaf adorning the eggshell-blue walls.

One scene during Episode 1 takes place in French with subtitles, which will be voiced over in the audio described soundtrack.

Across the channel, we meet King James I of England (King James VI of Scotland), a bearded Scot with wispy jaw-length ginger hair and a fiery personality. His wardrobe consists of various fine tailored doublets embroidered with metallic threads and paired with round hose. For formal occasions, he’s never without a stiff white collar or ruff. For a trip to Scotland on horseback, he wears a loose-collared shirt, layered with an open-sleeved riding jacket, breeches and boots.

The King’s sexual preferences are well known among the court. While he’s married to a Danish queen, he openly surrounds himself with young men – known as ‘the men of the bedchamber’. The most prominent of these, a favourite among many lovers, is the Earl of Somerset. A rugged featured Scot, he’s younger than the King, but not youthful in energy, and their relationship is tempestuous. Somerset’s usually dressed in black, and often bears a smug smirk or a jealous scowl. An earring much like George’s hangs from his left ear. His delicate-featured wife, Countess Somerset, is visibly pregnant when we meet her in Episode 3.

James’s queen, Anne of Denmark, is absent from much of her husband’s life, but still holds influence in the carefully choreographed central plot to endear the young George to the King. She wears enormous drum-shaped ‘farthingale’ skirts with stiff, matching bodices. At a Masque performance, a fluted collar stands up beyond the nape of her neck; her blond hair sculpted into a tall stack on top of her head further emphasising her image as an upright, discerning noblewoman.

Sir David Graham – introduced as ‘the only Englishman on the King’s staff’ is a clean-shaven, tall white man with silver hair and dark eyebrows. He employs a shady figure named Wearstrap, who’s bald with a grey goatee beard, to keep watch when he’s undertaking some risky, underhand endeavours.

Sir Francis Bacon, the rather self-important Attorney General, is present at royal functions and plays a key role in the power struggle emerging from Mary’s plot. His ageing face is dominated by a bushy grey beard and thick hair that’s neatly swept back and sometimes topped with an oversized top hat.    

Various royal residences feature in the series, with the King and his men travelling between them for royal business, lavish banquets and entertainment. A red-brick country mansion with tall chimneys rising above castellated columns hosts a collection of finely draped marquees in its grounds when the King stops by for a hunting trip in the nearby forest. Another palace, with wood panelled interiors and chequerboard tiled floors, is the setting for the ‘Masque’ theatrical performance, and later, for Mary’s first visit to the court of the King. Here, various Baroque paintings are displayed, including ‘Judith Slaying Holofernes’ by Artemisia Gentileschi, which hangs on the wall of a music room in the Earl of Somerset’s chambers, and also features in the opening titles of the series. A third residence, where Mary pays Queen Anne a visit, features a stone bridge over a moat, and a riverside path where the Queen walks with her Ladies in Waiting.

Away from the royal court, Mary visits London, arriving by private horse-drawn carriage in the squalid, labyrinthine streets that bustle with traders and beggars. Poverty is evident in the grimy, overcrowded Tudor buildings, packed tightly together, with dingy interiors. It’s here, in a brothel, that we meet Sandie; a lean, blonde Irishwoman with a streetwise swagger, who gains Mary’s trust and affection.

Back at Compton Manor, Sir Edward Coke is introduced with his wife, Lady Hatton and their daughter, Frances, whom Mary hopes will marry her oldest son, John. Coke is Lord Chief Justice and a member of the King’s Privy Council. His brown beard is greying in places; his hairline receded. He’s politically powerful but domestically embarrassed; his sharp-tongued, stiff-collared wife not afraid to insult him or anybody else to their face. The family are evidently well off, occupying multiple manor houses. Lady Hatton’s wardrobe matches the finest of the female courtiers; gleaming strings of pearls worn over ornate silk gowns, her curly hair gathered voluminously on top her head and dotted with jewels. The teenage Frances is largely upstaged by her mother in both presentation and power.

Two others play significant roles in Mary and George’s fortunes. The Earl of Essex, ex-husband of Countess Somerset, has a dark moustache and a pale face scarred all over with the imprints of smallpox. The young nobleman Sir Peter Carr – a cousin of the Earl of Somerset, meets the royal party in Scotland. Dressed in leather and tartan, he’s an officer of the Scottish Guard. He has pale brown skin, short-cropped afro hair, a square jaw and a toned physique.

Mary & George is showing on Sky Atlantic from 5 March 2024 with Audio Description by Jenni Elbourne