Some are born great, some achieve greatness and others have greatness bestowed upon them by those at a safe enough distance not to know the whole story…
It’s possible I’m reading too much into the fact that the only English monarch to be called 'the Great' by the English lived over 11 centuries ago, but maybe it’s not entirely a coincidence. After all, there are analogues elsewhere. Russia for instance. While my extensive research (i.e. 3 mins on Wikipedia) has taught me that the subject of this week's episode of Tsar, Peter Alexeyevich Romanov, is called ‘the Great’ in English, German, French, Danish, Swedish and Yiddish, the Russians themselves demonstrate their ambivalence towards him by giving him a single, perpendicular digit to go along with his first name.
This episode begins with a 10-year-old Peter who is Tsar in name only and builds to a show-down with those who are supposedly ruling on his behalf. Along the way, Peter puts together an unlikely retinue of kindred spirits from far and wide and develops a passion for ship-building and an ability to consume spectacular amounts of booze.
I know enough about Peter to be quite resistant to feeling much sympathy for him. He's a historical figure who is quite easy to admire on some level but very difficult to like. It's a measure of the success of the writing and the performance that I caught myself beginning to root for him in spite of myself. He's surprisingly open and vulnerable with several other characters and it’s only towards the end of the episode that his cunning (and a hint of cruelty) become apparent.
Sofia, ‘The Sovereign Lady’, Peter's half-sister and effectively ruler of Russia as Regent doesn’t get nearly such a nuanced treatment. It's a lot to do with the delivery. When she's ostensibly trying to lull various people into a false sense of security, she might as well be holding a giant neon sign that says I really wouldn't trust me if I were you. Except that wouldn't really come across on radio.
This episode of the series isn’t quite as bloodthirsty as parts one and two, but it's still by no means tame. One moment is particularly upsetting. I don’t want to give away what it is, but suffice it to say I’m now really curious as to whether what happens was based on the writer’s research into Russia during this time period or whether it’s (in which case very dubious) example of artistic licence.
It’s certainly a very solid episode and I’m interested to see what they go with the character of Peter once he’s actually running the show in part four.
