This film is probably the first of Jarman’s to start showing his anger against the perceived decline of England – political, social and in terms of it’s cultural health – a furious thread that would continue for the rest of career. This would develop and focus more fully a few years later in The Last of England (most explicitly against the years of Margaret Thatcher), The Garden, Blue and War Requiem and certainly in his writings and later paintings.

Of course, like many English directors despairing at the state of their country, the diatribes are frequently sweetened by that English habit of nostalgic yearnings for a more lyrical, never-never land (reference Michael Powell for something of a kindred spirit), in this film represented by the figure of Queen Elizabeth I and a certain pastoral softness.

It doesn’t entirely hang together, meandering off all over the place and with a variable set of performances, but a fascinating magpie’s nest of bits and pieces nevertheless.