The Stuart Star

BBC Two Original Series

He was raised in the court of James VI of Scotland. The Union of the Crowns gave him a new kingdom. Neither knew what to do with him. Set across the Union of the Crowns and the early Jacobean court (~1603–1625), The Stuart Star follows James Drummond, 26, a Black man raised as a royal ward in the Scottish court of James VI, bearing a Scottish noble name in recognition of his standing in the Scottish royal household. James Drummond is entirely Scottish — he speaks Scots and English, understands the Presbyterian tradition, has been educated in the Scottish Humanist manner, and has served in the Scottish royal household since childhood. When James VI becomes James I of England and moves his court to London, Drummond follows — and finds himself in the English court of Whitehall navigating the complex politics of a newly unified kingdom that does not quite know how to absorb the Scottish court, let alone one of its most unusual members. His arranged marriage to Lady Margaret Villiers, a cousin of the powerful Buckingham family, creates the series' central romantic engine: a Scottish-formed Black man and an English court lady learning each other's world across the cultural boundary of the new Britain. S1E1 — London The Scottish court arriving in London. James Drummond in Whitehall for the first time. The English court's reception — part fascination, part barely concealed bewilderment. S1E6 — Margaret's World James Drummond in the English country house of Lady Margaret's family. Her world. The specific Englishness of it and his specific Scottishness navigating it. S2E10 — The British Series finale: The Jacobean court in its full complicated magnificence. James Drummond having become — without anyone quite planning it — indispensable to the new British court.

Story added by mr95 on August 1, 2026