Queen James review – a fabulous documentary about the male lovers of Britain’s first king

Historian Gareth Russell has a gift. He’s entertaining and endlessly amusing in this confident TV transfer of his book about James I’s intimate companions That James I let his reign be shaped by his male lovers is both old news and not. Nobody was too shy to observe it in his own time, which was partly why he was nicknamed “Queen James” by his detractors. But censorious Victorian historians suppressed discussion of the king’s romances, to the point where his sexuality is still not common currency. Clear primary sources, not least James’s own letters, are abundant, and they contain a narrative

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