From teenage princess to accomplished queen, forever torn between duty and personal longing, the reign of Elizabeth I is exposed in this lavish four-part drama starring Anne-Marie Duff and Tom Hardy. Filmed against a backdrop of some of Great Britain's most beautiful houses and landscapes, the programme follows Queen Elizabeth (Duff) from her days of fear as a potential victim of her sister's terror, through her great love affair with Robert Dudley (Hardy), into her years of triumph over the Spanish Armada, and finally her old age and her last, enigmatic relationship with her young protege, the Earl of Essex (Hans Matheson).