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Makers Canal Plus have also ramped up the violence. Graphic scenes of torture in the opening episode, seen by The Mail on Sunday, include one of the king's enforcers bludgeoning a man to death with a hammer. In a later episode a man's hand is severed at the wrist.
The BBC negotiated the UK rights to show Versailles as part of its bid to secure a hit to rival the success of ITV's Downton Abbey.
So basically then, it's kind of Downton for Progressives, but everybody pays the tab.
How symbolic.
