Mrs Brown Details

Judi Dench and Billy Connolly are a wonderfully regal double-act in this perceptive blend of fact and fiction. The story examines the relationship between Queen Victoria and her Scottish gillie John Brown, who audaciously dispelled her gloom after the death of Prince Albert and with whom she became so close that gossips gave her his name. The Oscar-nominated Dench provides a wonderfully dignified counter-balance to comedian Connolly, whose forthright bluntness causes consternation among her tradition-bound household staff. Though the role was originally to have been played by Sean Connery, Connolly is more than just a substitute and he makes the part his own. Director John Madden and scriptwriter Jeremy Brock have created an engrossing account of an attachment that might have fulfilled itself romantically had it not been for the repressive conventions of the time.

"...Mrs. Brown transcends its period setting not only with a keenly observed struggle between love and duty but also with the kind of controversy that envelops the Queen and her servant..."