Patrick Stewart and Glenn Close star in the made-for-television remake of _The Lion in Winter_. King Henry II holds a Christmas court to determine who will succeed him as the next King of England, meanwhile his sons and the queen scheme and plot behind his back. Unfortunately the shadows of Peter O’Toole and Katharine Hepburn loom large, and while Steward and Close both deliver strong performance, in comparison they come up lacking. In fact, nearly everything, the costumes, the sets, the music, the cinematography, are all (while decent for a television budget) inferior to the ‘68 film. And it doesn’t do anything new or interesting with the material, following James Goldman’s original screenplay beat for beat. While entertaining, this made-for-television _The Lion in Winter_ is but a pale imitation of the theatrical version.