Edward the Seventh

"Edward the Seventh" is a TV drama series, made by ATV in 13 one-hour episodes.

Based on the biography of Edward VII by Philip Magnus, it starred Timothy West as the elder Edward VII and Charles Sturridge as Edward in his youth, Annette Crosbie as Queen Victoria, Deborah Grant and Helen Ryan as Queen Alexandra (the former as a young woman, the latter in later life), Robert Hardy as the Prince Consort, Alison Leggatt as the Duchess of Kent, and Felicity Kendal as Princess Vicky (later Empress Frederick of Germany). It was directed by John Gorrie, who wrote episodes 7-10 with David Butler writing the remainder of the series.

The series also featured Sir John Gielgud as Benjamin Disraeli, Michael Hordern as William Gladstone, Harry Andrews as young Edward's tutor Colonel Bruce, Jane Lapotaire as Empress Marie of Russia (sister to Alexandra and mother of Czar Nicholas II), Christopher Neame as Kaiser Wilhelm II (King Edward's own nephew) and, in one of his earliest roles, Charles Dance as Edward's eldest son Eddy, who died at the age of 28.

The actresses playing Edward's mistresses include Moira Redmond as Alice Keppel and Carolyn Seymour as Daisy Greville. Francesca Annis was featured in two episodes as Lillie Langtry which led to Butler writing a full series about Mrs Langtry's life for Annis to star in, "Lillie".

It was first broadcast on TV between April and June 1975. In the United States it was shown under the title 'Edward the King'. In the UK, it is available as a four-disc DVD set, encoded for Region 0, by Network Video. It's also available for the North American market as an extras-less six-disc set.

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*imdb title|id=0072925|title=Edward the Seventh