Strictly’s Anton Du Beke is among those gracing the Pointless podium, along with EastEnders actress Emma Barton, saxophonist YolanDa Brown, antiques expert Eric Knowles and The Repair Shop’s Will Kirk. The two-part docu-series about the late Queen’s life prior to her accession to the throne concludes by covering her marriage to Prince Philip in 1947, the birth of her two eldest children and her fateful, life-altering trip to Kenya in 1952. That there was far more to Anne besides (she set a number of key royal precedents, such as making her husband prince consort rather than king) is celebrated in an enthusiastically fascinating documentary. Principally the 1707 Act of Union, which united England and Scotland for the first time, ensured the Protestant succession and made Anne the first monarch of Great Britain. “It’s time to change the narrative,” says Dr Tracy Borman, one of many historians and authors (including Alice Loxton) arguing Anne’s case here – and rightly so, as she reigned over a period that saw some of the most complex political changes ever to occur on these islands.
However, her regal achievements are rarely acknowledged. Anne, who reigned from 1702 to 1714, is mostly remembered for her childbearing tragedies, the death of her 11-year-old sole heir Prince William and the later-in-life scandal surrounding the vicious rivalry between two of her ladies in waiting (which in turn inspired the 2018 Oscar-winning film The Favourite). Widely regarded as something of a side note to British history, Queen Anne is undergoing a welcome reassessment.
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