Peter the Great miniseries (1986)

I am old enough to remember this being screened on tv. It's now available on dvd for the movie fans among you. The Great Northern War battle scenes were a little disappointing (if only they could have filmed what I was expecting!) but the casting was good - Laurence Olivier as William III was particularly inspired. Plagued by freezing temperatures in St Petersburg (it was quite a big deal filming in Russia in 86) and having to use a stand-in for Schell in some scenes it also suffered at the hands of another miniseries 'Sins' starring Joan Collins which was screened in the USA at the same time ...but that's showbusiness. Wiki on the series
NY Times review Peter the Great is very, very clean.