The fourth and final part of Mike Walker’s drama series Tsar was broadcast last Sunday (Oct 2nd) on BBC Radio 4.
Peter I is now ruling and not just reigning. Gone is the somewhat sensitive youth of the previous episode, replaced by a swaggering megalomaniac who seems be starting to believe in his own legend. This, I must admit, fits much better with the image of Peter that I had from my admittedly patchy knowledge of Russian history. Walker has done a great job of capturing Peter’s relentless energy as well as the unease that his contempt for tradition provoked in many of his subjects.
Tsar has had its fair share of strong female characters so far, but Marfa/Catherine surpasses all of them. I was hitherto completely unaware of her as a historical figure. Her rise from domestic servitude to becoming Peter’s consort and eventual successor is nothing short of astonishing. Her relationship with Alexander Menshikov, long-time advisor and drinking buddy of Peter, has a distinctly Eliza Doolittle-Henry Higgins dynamic to it. The gradual fading of her initially harsh Lithuanian (read generic Eastern European...all the Russian characters, mercifully, have English accents) is a nice bit of attention to detail. It's fair to say that both Menshikov and Peter get a lot more than they bargained for.
As with the rest of the series, it’s engaging stuff and makes me really curious to know the extent to which artistic licence has been applied to the story.
