There’s no question about who wrote Shakespeare’s plays in Roland Emmerich’s energetic, handsome and fitfully entertaining historical fiction: it’s the Earl of Oxford, a man so highly placed that he can’t be seen to work. So he finds a front man – and it’s not William Shakespeare.

That story feeds into a muddled, not very thrilling tale of court intrigue that pits Oxford against the dour Puritan father-and-son team of William and Robert Cecil over the question of who will succeed Elizabeth on the throne.

It takes 40 years to play out, so we get two Elizabeths – mother and daughter Vanessa Redgrave and Joely Richardson. Both portray a smart, headstrong, passionate woman who makes a sparkling foil for Rhys Ifans’s complex Oxford.

The extras point out where history gets ditched in favour of drama, and offer an overview of the theory that Oxford really did write Shakespeare’s plays. Ifans tells us this matters, but not why.

EXTRAS Director and writer commentary, effects doc, Shakespeare controversy doc, more. English, French audio. English SDH, French, Spanish subtitles.

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