'The Great': a lively, vaguely historic romp that never bores

With films based on actual people, it’s always tempting to take a peek at the historical record. Fictional characters will invariably be created and genuine ones omitted, myths will be treated as facts. No one can resist adding a dash – or a bucketload – of romance to prosaic reality.

In the case of The Great – Australian screenwriter Tony McNamara’s fictionalised account of the early career of Russian empress, Catherine the Great – I couldn’t begin to list the deviations from the truth.

In this 10-part series streaming on Stan, McNamara plays so fast and loose it would be tedious to enumerate all the instances in which ribald imagination takes over from history. It’s best to treat The Great as a bawdy pantomime in which Catherine is no more of an historical figure than Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

If this offends your sense of decency don’t even think about tuning in, but McNamara’s boldness is to be preferred to the half-hearted efforts of filmmakers who don’t know where to draw the line between historical accuracy and entertainment. Sofia Coppola couldn’t make up her mind with her confused bio pic of Marie Antoinette, and Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds was offensive in its frivolous approach to World War II.

The motto of the series could be 'excess breeds success'. The language is broad, the sexual manners outrageous, the blood and guts flow.

McNamara has already shown his willingness to turn imperial history into low comedy in The Favourite (2018). The Great was actually written before that movie, and helped shape director Yorgos Lanthimos’ thinking, and the success of The Favourite in turn allowed McNamara to secure a contract for his proposed series.

The scene has shifted from Britain to Russia, but the method is essentially the same. The costumes and settings may be sumptuous but the figures who inhabit them are only too human. They live in the 18th century but speak and act like characters from a present-day sitcom.

The motto of the series could be "excess breeds success". The language is broad, the sexual manners outrageous, the blood and guts flow freely. The plot, on the other hand, could hardly be simpler. Catherine (Elle Fanning) arrives from her native Prussia to become the wife of Peter III (Nicholas Hoult) the youthful Emperor of Russia.

The court of Saint Petersburg turns out to be pure anarchy, and Peter an imbecile. Within a few episodes she has begun to plot a takeover that will see her ascend the throne, fulfilling the magnificent destiny she has always believed to be her due.