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A year from now, at the 2009 Academy Awards, it is possible to imagine a scenario in which a quartet of young actresses are nominated for playing women from Britain's glorious past.

For the past few years it's been all Elizabeth, the queen famous for strategically guarding her virginity, but in the coming months the big screen will be crowded with history girls who operated a more open-door policy towards sex.

First up is an adaptation of Philippa Gregory's novel, The Other Boleyn Girl, which tells of two sisters' rivalry for the sexual attention of Henry VIII. It really ought to be known as The Other Other Boleyn Girl, a previous adaptation having been made - on a shoestring budget - by the BBC in 2003.

The new film stars Natalie Portman as Anne Boleyn and, as her sister Mary, Scarlett Johansson, who will scarcely need to change out of her voluminous Tudor gown to play the lead in the upcoming Mary Queen of Scots. This is another remake of a television drama, Jimmy McGovern's Gunpowder, Treason and Plot, which was shown on Channel 4 in 2004.

But this new cinematic compulsion is not confined to the Tudor age. Last year Kirsten Dunst starred in Marie Antoinette. The Young Victoria, with a leading role for Emily Blunt, will attempt to sex up a queen previously associated with dourness and denial, not dissimilarly from the 2001 BBC drama Victoria and Albert. The script is by Julian Fellowes, who in Gosford Park revealed an Oscar-winning talent for locating the passions tightly buttoned inside posh English hearts.