But never mind the plot, look at those names. Meanwhile Philip II of France (Timothy Dalton) is complicating matters, wondering just which of the three lads is going to become king, so he can strategically marry his sister off to the lucky winner. To oil the wheels he’s released his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine (Katharine Hepburn), from house arrest where she’s been languishing for ten years – he’s that kind of a guy. The candidates are oldest but faintly idiot son John (Nigel Terry), warlike Richard (Anthony Hopkins) and gentle Geoffrey (John Castle). And what a theatrical beast it is – a literate costume drama focusing on 50-year-old Henry II’s decision-making over who was to succeed him.

This was only director Anthony Harvey’s second film, after a career as an editor (for Kubrick on Lolita and Dr Strangelove, among others). The Lion in Winter (1968, dir: Anthony Harvey) Not quite the figure you meet in the movies then. No lover of England – “I would have sold London if I could find a buyer” – he was reputed to have had a homosexual affair with Philip II of France. After which, ironically, he headed off on the Third Crusade to expel Saladin the Muslim from Jerusalem. Richard spoke French, not English (he was also the Duke of Normandy, Aquitaine, Nantes, Anjou, Gascony and so on – the idea of monarchy and nation being coterminous is something Richard wouldn’t have understood), he spent only six months of his reign in England, and while there initiated a great pogrom against the Jews. Known as the Lionheart, because of his great courage in battle, he is often viewed romantically, especially if seen through the prism of the Robin Hood stories, in which his half brother John always gets the bad guy role and Richard is the paragon of virtue. On this day in 1189 one of the most famous English kings was crowned in Westminster Abbey in London. Richard I of England crowned at Westminster, 1189

A movie for every day of the year – a good one

The Lion in Winter by James Goldman