In 1788, when he was almost thirty years into his reign, England's King George III, much to the consternation of his wife and immediate family, suddenly lapsed into what was to become almost a year-long period of insanity. Such was the seriousness of his ongoing infirmness that the day to day affairs of the state, as administered by the monarchy, inevitably became seriously compromised.
As news of the king's alleged madness spread, his duplicitous son, the Prince of Wales, sought to take advantage of the escalating constitutional crisis by exhorting parliament to issue a proclamation declaring his father unfit to rule and installing him as Regent. He almost succeeded. That the king was able to regain a measure of his sanity and thwart his son's perfidious plan was due largely to the determined intervention of his loyal and devoted wife Charlotte and the unorthodox course of therapy meted out by a self-styled psycho-therapist named Dr. Willis.
Writer Alan Bennet first premiered this turbulant episode from the king's life as a play at the Royal National Theatre in 1991. Like that feted stage production, the centrepiece of director Nicholas Hytner's sumptuous, period perfect screen adaptation is once again the remarkable Nigel Hawthorne. Though he is somewhat older than King George was at the time of his so-called madness, Hawthorne, by virtue of his pivotal role, embraces the heart and soul of the character (and by turn the film) in a blistering career-high tour-de-force that deservedly earned him an Oscar nomination. Helen Mirren, Ian Holm, Rupert Everett and Rupert Graves are perfect in key supporting roles. With wit and intelligence to spare, historical dramas don't come much better than this one. Highly recommended.
