This was excellently and, as far as I can judge, quite honestly done. All performances were very vivid and striking. Perhaps it made some characters more charismatic and interesting than they may have been in real life, but it never felt that the series of performances were being exaggeratedly comic or smart for their own sake.
There was a sense, perhaps rightly, that virtually none of the main players should be taken very seriously, although the matters and actions of the story were certainly serious.
There was a good sense of the time and place.