Channel 4’s The Great series 1 is a ten-part comedy drama coming on Sunday January 3 at 9pm

As Channel 4’s press release puts it:

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. It’s a modern love story that incorporates historical facts, occasionally

They style is as the fictionalised, fun and anachronistic story of an idealistic, romantic young girl (Elle Fanning), who arrives in Russia for an arranged marriage to the mercurial Emperor Peter (Nicholas Hoult). The cast also includes Phoebe Fox, Adam Godley, Gwilym Lee, Charity Wakefield, Douglas Hodge, Sacha Dhawan, Sebastian de Souza, Bayo Gbadamosi and Belinda Bromilow. It’s a far cry from the previous HBO version of Catherine the Great, which starred Helen Mirren.

Writer Tony McNamara talks about how he approached the balance between fact and fiction:

I think I wanted to be true to certain events in Catherine’s life but also create a show that felt contemporary so not be yoked to details of history that didn’t help tell her story, and were anti drama. In The Favourite it was similar – we cut extraneous history if it didn’t serve the essential core of the story. What’s strange is some of the more bonkers ideas and details in the show are actually historically accurate.

Elle Fanning has this to say about her character:

Catherine is an idealistic young woman who finds herself in a backwards world, married to a tyrant. She quickly realises she would be a better ruler and plots to take over the throne. Catherine is romantic and naive at the start, but throughout the series her ruthlessness grows.

Channel 4 is clearly confident about this series (by calling it series 1) and we wish it well. It might well fill our late Sunday evening slot for a few weeks! You can see all the press pack details here.