What would happen if Britain’s head of state, the reigning King or Queen, decided to use their constitutional right to block a bill passed through Parliament? It seems unimaginably contrived, but this is the plot of King Charles III, adapted from Mike Bartlett's award winning-play by the BBC. Charles, ascending to the throne as the nation mourns his mother’s death, apprehensively tells the camera, “The Queen is dead, long live the King… That’s me.”

"The late Tim Pigott-Smith masterfully plays King Charles with uncertain manner, but without delving into over-done impression. "

Despite its fictional scenario, Charles III gives a surprisingly realistic portrayal of the royals, both as an institution and as a family. Sometimes there’s a noticeable over-emphasis of traits and dynamics, for example Camilla is completely snubbed by all, including Charles. But in the end, this serves the greater purpose of making them familiar. These royals, however unrecognisable the situation, are clearly our royals. Indeed, at its heart, the late Tim Pigott-Smith masterfully plays King Charles with uncertain manner, but without delving into over-done impression. 

The film, like the play, is in blank verse, adding to the Shakespearean drama. It plays out as a tour-de-force of intrigue, but ultimately draws its strength from unsentimental exploration of the institution at the heart of the British state. Is the crown meant to stand for something, as Charles believes? Or is its beauty in its vacuousness, its real power in the image William and Kate hold? In the end, neither side comes out well. Charles, in his refusal to pass a law regulating the press, is standing for what he believes in. He may do it out of vanity and pride but he has a degree of humanity that those around him seem to lack.

The other version of the monarchy is the one we recognise. That of royal weddings and “column inches”. This might be the more politically correct version of the monarchy but it is, ironically, colder and more ruthless in its pursuit of public approval than Charles’s conception of a monarchy that matters. Prince Harry’s relationship with the republican-inclined Jessica is used not just to present an argument against the monarchy, but to look at his role as the supposedly fun, comical figure of the family. 

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Charles III also portrays what the family under Queen Elizabeth II have been keen to avoid at all costs: drama. Tellingly, the ghost of the last person to blight the royals with such scandal and crisis haunts Charles, Harry and William. Bear in mind this was written before Harry spoke out about the difficulty in dealing with his mother’s death, an indication that the film is right to not show the royals as they want to appear to us, but to bury deeper.

For all its fiction, this is a serious and deep examination of the British monarchy and a great political drama to boot