This Elizabethan conspiracy thriller charting the turbulent early reign of the self-proclaimed "Virgin Queen" is given a vivid contemporary fcous by Indian director Shekhar Kapur. A far cry from the usual "frock ope-ra", Kapur's multi-award-winning biography is a sumptuous and thoughtful dramatic triumph, with Australian actress Cate Blanchett revelatory as the strong-willed monarch who nimbly transforms from naive girlhood to true majesty. She's assisted in her paths to greatness by her adviser Sir Francis Walsingham - an outstanding performance from Geoffrey Rush (who won an Oscar as pianist David Helfgott in Shine).

Although we know exactly how the story is going to turn out, screenwriter Michael Hirst lures us into the web of intrigue by focusing on just how close the last of the Tudors actually came to losing her throne, as she allowed her passion for Robert Dudley to distract her from affairs of state. Richard Attenborough, Jo-seph Fiennes, Angus Deayton and ex-footballer Eric Cantona flesh out an interesting cast as Bollywood meets The Godfather.

School history lessons were never this good!