To Make the Plough Go before the Horse

by Mike Walker. James I & VI. Charting the life and reign of the loneliest boy in the world, through his relationships, with his one love, Esme, his bullying tutor, Buchanan, his charming Queen, Anne, to his favourite, George Villiers.

Directed by Jessica Dromgoole & Sasha Yevtushenko
Sound design by Colin Guthrie

Production co-ordinator: Phil Hawkins
Studio managers: Martha Littlehailes, Anne Bunting, Alison Craig

Notes

Becoming King of England does not free James from the prison of his past or his nature; on the other hand it does allow him a vastly broader canvas on which both his virtues and his faults show clearly. He seeks to vindicate his mother's memory and attacks those who attacked her; he encourages learning and discourages foreign adventures, he supports brilliant men and women but, when convenient, or when bullied, allows them to be destroyed. At his death, will he leave as difficult an inheritance to his son as his mother did to him?