Cirrus@Austlit

'The Great is a satirical, comedic drama about the rise of Catherine the Great from outsider to the longest reigning female ruler in Russia's history. Season One is a fictionalized, fun and anachronistic story of an idealistic, romantic young girl who arrives in Russia for an arranged marriage to the mercurial Emperor Peter. Hoping for love and sunshine, she finds instead a dangerous, depraved, backward world that she resolves to change. All she has to do is kill her husband, defeat the church, baffle the military and get the court on her side. Incorporating historical facts occasionally, the series stars Elle Fanning as Catherine, Nicholas Hoult, Phoebe Fox, Adam Godley, Gwilym Lee, Charity Wakefield, Douglas Hodge, Sacha Dhawan, Sebastian de Souza, Bayo Gbadamosi, Belinda Bromilow and Richard Pyros.' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_(miniseries)

According to contemporary television guides:

'Charles Dance plays a film critic who spots something nasty in a rear window in The McGuffin, an affectionate tribute to the thrillers of Alfred Hitchcock, based on the novel by John Bowen.'

(The Times, 11 January 1986, p.36)

Contemporary reviews were not all positive. One review, covering the films entered into that year's Mythfest, notes that

'Unfortunatly [sic] the film (made for BBC Television) wanders off into in-jokes about films and festivals which must be incomprehensible to most of the audience and for the others embarrassing in their film-school naivety.'

('Half a Century's Inspiration', The Times, 22 July 1986, p.15)