Charles III (2017)

Television adaptation (shown on Masterpiece Theater) of Mike Bartlett's 2014 play about the ascension of Prince Charles to the British throne and a self inflicted crises that puts his Kingship in jeopardy. The story is similar to the principle narrative of the second series of the British version of  House of Cards titled To Play The King, where a Charles like monarch gets too overtly involved in U.K. politics resulting in a kind of standoff with the British prime minister. Bartlett's play is done in imitation of Shakespeare's history plays, and while it does not go all Elizabethan in its language the dialogue is formal and stylized. The portrayals of the various royals family members are pretty pointed and not flattering. A strange curio and the last film role of the actor who plays Charles III, Tim Pigott-Smith. ***