A Royal Affair review

It's a story fit for the Mail Online's sidebar of shame, yet the great sex scandal of 18th-Century Denmark is little known today.

Director Nikolaj Arcel gives the story of Queen Caroline Mathilde’s (Alicia Vikander) affair with the royal physician (Mads Mikkelsen) a traditional treatment, while striving for a modern emotional immediacy.

A few years ago Mikkelsen would have been the only recognisable face, now there are plenty from Danish TV’s recent boom. The stand-out, though, is Mikkel Boe Folsgaard as the King. Teetering on the edge of sanity, he is both detestable and sympathetic.