The life of Mary Queen of Scots and her relationship with her rival and cousin Elizabeth Queen of England has long been a source of inspiration for creators.

Even as far back as 1800, Fredricillo had written a play about Mary Stewart.

It was turned into an opera by Donald Setti and from the 1930s there have been films made about Mary.

It's an irresistible romantic tale.

In the 1960s there was a trend for historical dramas and the team that had made Anne of a thousand days now made a new film about Mary Queen of Scots.

They came out in 1971 with Vanessa Redgrave in the title role and Glenda Jackson as Elizabeth I.

More recently in 2018, director Josie Rourke made a film with Sertia Rowan as Mary and Margot Robbie as Elizabeth.

Both of these films show the lives of the two queens. They are compared and contrasted and both films have the Queen's meeting, though they never met in reality.

But what do they tell us about history and what do they tell us about our ideas about what we think should have happened?

Before we get started, here's a very brief reminder of who we're talking about, Mary Stewart, the Catholic Queen of Scotland.

Born in 1542, she was the wife of the heir to the French throne, the Dauphin, and Queen of France during his brief reign only returning to Scotland after his death.

After two disastrous Scottish marriages, De Henry Stewart, Lord Donnelly and James Hepburn, Earl of Birthwell, Mary was driven out of Scotland by rival factions and religious turmoil in 1568.

She came to England for protection, where she was kept under house arrest by her unmarried Protestant cousin Queen Elizabeth I.

The two were never reconciled. Mary had a rival claim to the English throne and she was eventually beheaded on February 8, 1587.

For this special in formal, not just the Tudor's Lates, on Mary Queen of Scots, in life and on screen, my guests are Dr. Joanne Paul, the author of The House of Dudley, a new history of Tudor England.

Jesse Childs, who wrote God's traitors, Tara and Faith in Elizabethan England, and also joining us are two historians who have thought about how to put history on screen.

Screenwriter Alex von Tundzerman and cultural historian Professor Sarah Churchill.

The House of Dudley, who wrote God's traitors, was the first to be in the House of Dudley, and also the first to be in the House of Dudley.

So perhaps the place to start is thinking about how Mary has been depicted and the kind of major differences, if there are any, or actually, as a kind of blueprint of how Mary Queen has got some film.

I mean, I think generally speaking, there is always a tendency to present her in opposition to Elizabeth I.

I'm not sure we've ever really had a film where Elizabeth isn't used to some sort of foil or reverse image of her, and the attempts usually is to show obviously two ways of being a female monarch, but also two ways of being a woman, this head versus the heart sort of presentation.

Sarah, there was so much historical emphasis on her beauty that I think filmmakers feel licensed in a way they don't always.

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