Summary of Differences Between American & UK Versions
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It was shown in the United States under the title The Last King: The Power and the Passion of King Charles II. This version, however, was heavily edited. The original British version was a four hour mini-series divided into four parts. For American broadcast over an hour was edited out, and it was shown in two 90 min (with commercials, 2 hour) installments.
The edits often make little regard for either the script's continuity or coherence. Unless otherwise stated, items said to have been left out refer to the version shown in America and the DVD version available.
Many things are left out including the full details of the Treaty of Dover which contained a secret clause wherein Charles promised Louis XIV, his first cousin, to convert to Catholicism for an enormous sum of money. Louis also promised six thousand French troops if Charles needed them.
The edited American version also leaves out Charles's trickery of George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham (played by Rupert Graves) regarding the treaty's secret provision. Thus, Buckingham's later opposition to Charles's insistence that his brother James (later James II played by Charlie Creed-Miles) inherit the throne, appears to be motivated by merely spite and jealousy rather than a feeling of betrayal.
James's marriage to Anne, daughter of Sir Edward Hyde, made Earl of Clarendon by Charles in 1661, is also unexplained in the American version. Played by Tabitha Wady, Anne is only in two scenes, when Charles meets Catherine of Braganza and later, in conversation with Lady Castlemaine as the Queen "took the waters" at Tunbridge Wells, where many noble and wealthy women went to seek treatment for infertility.
The part where James and Charles are discussing James divorcing Anne was also removed, further confusing viewers not familiar with the history.
The conversations between "Minette" (Charles' sister Henrietta-Anne) and Louise de Kéroualle with Louis XIV (played by Anne-Marie Duff, Perkins Thierry, and Mélanie Thierry, respectively) are all in French with English subtitles in the British version. In the American version, only the conversation between Minette and Louis, where Louis asks Minette to act as his envoy to Charles is in English (perhaps because of the perception that American audiences dislike subtitles).
Another scene edited out, shows "Minette"'s husband, the Duc d'Orleans, called "Monsieur" (the traditional appellation for the King's eldest brother), a notorious homosexual libertine, battering and raping her after insulting her.
All in all, the cuts made by A&E distort the picture of Charles II's personality and political maneuvers whereas the version shown in Britain displays much more fully Charles II's "shifty insincerity" (as Will & Ariel Durant put in it The Age of Louis XIV) and his willingness to sacrifice loyal servants at need. Indeed, the cuts seem to have been made with little regard for continuity or narrative coherence in the American version.
The American version presents Charles as the last "absolute" monarch of England. This does not dovetail with the historical reality (see the Durants and Fraser). In fact, Charles maintained his indepdence of Parliament in his last years only by taking French money. He also ensured his brother's succession to the throne not through royal command, but through Parliamentary maneuvers and the nation's reluctance to see another civil war so soon after the First and Second English Civil Wars in the 1640s.
The full, BBC version gives a more detailed, coherent presentation of the story of Charles' life and (temporary) victory over his opponents in Parliament.
Three scenes of brief nudity which were removed.
The only version available on DVD, in the US & Canada, is the one broadcast on A&E. The British DVD retains the full BBC version. Due to technical reasons, the most important impediment being the different television formats used in the two countries, see PAL and NTSC; also (see DVD article for further details on controversial "copy protection" measures), the British version cannot be readily viewed with the vast majority of American set-top DVD players. The aforementioned television format differences also make viewing a VHS copy of the British version difficult on US and Canadian TVs.
Read more about this topic: Charles II: The Power And The Passion
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