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This week marks 204 years since the death of the British monarch, who suffered from porphyria, a disease unknown to medicine at the time. The prequel to ‘Bridgerton,’ far from an accurate portrayal of history, nevertheless faithfully narrates the illness of the king popularly known as ‘Farmer George’ On the cold morning of January 29, … Read more

George III, Queen Charlotte and their Six Eldest Children by Johan Zoffany (1770). Wikimedia During the Georgian period, the British royal family had a strange habit of concealing illness, even from themselves. George III’s grandmother, Queen Caroline, suffered from a painful hernia for 13 years before it ruptured. No one other than Caroline’s husband, George II, had been … Read more

Royal Museums Greenwich tells visitors that despite what ‘insecure white boys’ have said, George III’s wife was from a non-white background Queen Charlotte portrayed with her two eldest sons in 1769 CREDIT: Heritage Images Queen Charlotte was a “person of colour”, a museum’s LGBT audio guide has wrongly claimed. The audio guide for the Royal Museums Greenwich tells … Read more

The unique gown features in a new exhibition about royal staff. VICTORIA MURPHY Queen Charlotte’s fashion choices have been spectacularly reimagined through Netflix series Bridgerton and Queen Charlotte. But in reality, just one item of clothing that the wife of King George III wore in her lifetime has survived, and it is now on display in Kensington Palace. A … Read more

In the series premiere of Shōgun, Hiroyuki Sanada’s Lord Toranaga, the soon-to-be-exiled regent at the center of the action, is described as “famous for his trickery” by his trusted vassal Lady Mariko (Anna Sawai). Ten hours later, in the last moments of the finale, Sanada sheds the character’s many layers of subtlety and artifice, finally revealing his secret … Read more

Shōgun may not return for season 2, but the story of the Tokugawa shogunate goes on. By the time Shōgun’s conflict ends, there is no violence. The FX drama, adapted from James Clavell’s 1975 novel of the same name, takes place during a power struggle in feudal Japan right before one of the bloodiest battles in the nation’s history. Unlike … Read more

What a reveal… It’s all come down to this. In a shocking finale that will likely be remembered as one of the best in television history, Shōgun revealed its true hand and the series’ true puppet master. It was a masterclass in pulling back the curtain. As both viewers and Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis) dealt with the loss … Read more

Shogun‘s Mariko may have died in the series’ penultimate episode, but her sacrifice carried with it plenty of meaning heading into the finale. Airing on FX (and streaming on Hulu), the sword-swinging TV epic, just rounded out its ten-episode run, telling a gripping tale of a country in flux and one man’s labyrinthine plan for power. Lady Mariko (played … Read more