ITV gave an ungrateful world Ray Winstone as an East End gang-boss Henry VIII; BBC1 is making a better fist of Charles II, The Power And The Passion. Next week, Accessible Arts presents the Virgin Queen Elizabeth I in a festive comedy, Ruff-Doublet And The Queen, at the National Centre for Early Music, York.

The year is 1588, and the Queen is bored, bored, bored. After all, she has been on the throne for nearly 30 years. Regal life amounts to the usual gossip in court, the same old shows at the Globe and her ministers plotting behind her back; even the beheadings are becoming dull.

Meanwhile in Spain, King Phil is increasingly annoyed with England's piracy of his ships and territories. Last year they even set fire to most of his fleet.

One evening, on an unofficial royal walkabout through the streets of London, the Queen chances upon one Sidney Ruff-Doublet, a captain on shore leave. The stage is set for a musical tale of mistaken identities, time travel, court intrigues and a strange sea journey as the Spanish Armada sails ever close to the British wind.

Devised and written by members of the Hands And Voices Choir, with a commissioned score by director Chris Bartram, Ruff-Doublet And The Queen blends music with theatre, technology and pantomime.

Hands And Voices, the singing and signing choir from York, comprises able-bodied and learning-disabled performers, who combine signs, symbols and the sung word to aid communication between those with speech and language difficulties and their audience.

For this show, the choir is being joined for a third time by Andy Stafford, from Gateshead theatre company The Lawnmowers. Along with choir member Rebecca Cooper, he has been working as assistant director.

Ruff-Doublet And The Queen will be presented at the NCEM in Walmgate from Thursday to Saturday, in association with the York Early Music Christmas Festival 2003. Tickets for the 7.30pm performances cost £7. Accessible Arts members, £6/£3, on 01904 658338.

Updated: 10:26 Friday, November 28, 2003