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T10 WHATS UP! July 31 - August 6, 2022 leaves him begging his brother, ever in the King's ear, for per- mission to marry Elizabeth. This permission is denied. The picture "Becoming Eliz- abeth" paints of the eventual queen may seem at odds with the public legacy of the "Virgin Queen," but the title contem- poraneously — and now con- textually — refers to her life- long unmarried status and por- trayals in the art of the time as god-like. Carrying the weight of having been Anne Boleyn's daughter and having once been determined an illegitimate child of Henry VIII, Elizabeth had to forge her own legacy. The series creator behind "Becoming Elizabeth," play- wright Anya Reiss ("East- Enders"), set out to imagine an Elizabeth Tudor that was of this world, using what we know about her real life. "I don't think I set out to re- shape the way anyone thought about Elizabeth," Reiss told Time magazine of her inten- tions for the show. "I set out to portray her as a real human person," adding, "People think she's iconic. I wanted to undei- fy her." In order to portray Elizabeth, German actress von Rittberg did some serious research on the Tudor queen, including some out-of-the-box coaching. "You have to give it so much time that it just becomes some- thing natural," von Rittberg told W Magazine of the pro- cess she underwent to master the accent, posture and move- ments of the would-be queen. "I did start to work with a movement coach half a year before ... like how to turn in that much fabric and such heavy clothes, how to move fast, or be more [or less] fo- cused as a 14-year-old." Having garnered both audi- ence and critical praise, "Be- coming Elizabeth" clearly scratches an itch for fans of a certain fantasy drama TV ad- aptation. Combining terrible boy kings, backstabbing, up- wardly mobile advisers and land and faith wars, it's easy to make a comparison to one of the last real appointment-TV phenomena, "Game of Thrones" (however dragonless this series may be). For anyone suffering the gap between the May 2019 "Game of Thrones" finale and the projected August 2022 pre- miere of its sister series, "House of the Dragon," it might be time to dip a toe into the "Becoming Elizabeth" wa- ters. Dust off your throne and set out a feast for the dramatic sea- son finale of "Becoming Eliza- beth," airing Sunday, July 31, on Starz. continued from page T2 Her royal highness: The last Tudor rises in 'Becoming Elizabeth' TV FEATURE 5 x 5 John Heffernan and Tom Cullen in "Becoming Elizabeth"