Gloriana!

Oh joy - it's an Elizabeth-fest! Tonight it's the first part of Channel Four's Elizabeth I, starring Helen Mirren.

Then in January Anne-Marie Duff (Fiona from the genius Shameless) plays Elizabeth in the BBC series Elizabeth I: The Virgin Queen. This will cover Elizabeth's life from her teens to her death at the age of 70.

And it's possible that Cate Blanchett will reprise her role as Elizabeth in The Golden Age, a sequel to Shekhar Kapur's 1998 film Elizabeth, which is probably one of my top five films ever (and along with David Starkey's biog and TV series, responsible for getting me hooked on Bess). But I'm not holding my breath on this one.

As Empire says:

"It could be second time lucky for Cate Blanchett at the Oscars if this goes ahead. However, everything depends on Blanchett returning, and preferably the rest of the cast with her, and the script working out. We'll get excited if and when it all comes together."

The Makeup Gallery has a fantastic page of photos of actresses who have played Elizabeth on TV and in movies, linked to individual pages where their make-up jobs are gone into in detail - including some who agreed to shave their hairlines in order to get an authentic Tudor look... eeeshk!