The king, with a parrot on his shoulder, seems more interested in collecting stamps than dealing with affairs of state, and he defers to the queen. The scene ends before we learn her decision.
Next we’re transported to Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg, Russia, where the czar, his wife, four daughters and son are being held. Tricked into thinking they are about to be rescued — by “cousin George,” they presume — the family is led to a cellar where they are gruesomely murdered by Bolshevik revolutionaries.
Fast-forward to 1991: Queen Elizabeth II, played by Imelda Staunton, watches news coverage as the communist Soviet Union collapses and Boris Yeltsin, promising democracy, takes control. Soon the queen learns that years earlier, when Yeltsin was a lower government official, he ordered the destruction of Ipatiev House.
The remainder of the episode deals…
