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That James I let his reign be shaped by his male lovers is both old news and not. Nobody was too shy to observe it in his own time, which was partly why he was nicknamed “Queen James” by his detractors. But censorious Victorian historians suppressed discussion of the king’s romances, to the point where his sexuality is still not common currency. Clear primary sources, not least James’s own letters, are abundant, and they contain a narrative that’s salacious on the surface with fascinating nuances underneath, yet they’re an underexploited resource.

On to this fertile terrain strides Gareth Russell, confidently transferring his book Queen James: The Life and Loves of Britain’s First King to the screen. This is a perspicuous account, gossipy but not prurient, sharpened by modern sensibilities without erasing the mores of the 17th century. Russell, tart when warranted and tenderly empathic when that’s preferable, glints with the knowledge that he has a fabulous story to tell you.

Aside from James – who had been James VI of Scotland since he was a baby, taking over England and Ireland as well 35 years later in 1603 – the main players are Robert Carr, Earl of Somerset, who charms the king when he breaks his leg in a jousting match but looks handsome doing it; Carr’s secretary Sir Thomas Overbury, the political brain behind Carr when intimacy with the king gives him power; and George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, a dashing new arrival who replaces Carr in the royal bedchamber. We are working towards 1616, when Carr is on trial for murder and could, if he loses his cool in the dock, bring James down with him.

Russell, bolstered by the fellow historians he meets in dusty archives and magnificent stately homes, leads us through the complexities of James’s personality, from the numerous children he happily fathered with his wife, Anne of Denmark – more than the “heir and a spare” needed to keep up appearances – to the moral treatise he published where he identified “sodomy” as an unforgivable crime. We are schooled on how the tastemakers of the early 1600s liked nothing better than two upstanding men of the establishment saying they loved each other, this being purer and nobler than a relationship sullied by a woman, but then got a bit vague on whether they were actually breaching each other’s breeches.

As Russell thoughtfully examines each grey area, adding an assessment of how James’s troubled upbringing and unconventional education made him an “intellectually brilliant and emotionally traumatised” ruler whose real character was further obscured by his penchant for PR spin, James becomes more intriguing the less certain we are about him.

What we are pretty sure of is that, although James used his bedroom for important political decisions as well as private assignations, Carr then Villiers were more than advisers. For this we have James’s letters, which sing with the sort of pain and ecstasy that just wouldn’t be there if he were merely messaging colleagues. Russell explains how, just as James could never be sure whether his favourites loved him truly or were just coveting wealth and influence, anyone sharing James’s bed never knew if they would be dealing with the man or the monarch.

That tension is brilliantly evoked by James McArdle, who reads the king’s letters. He looks us in the eye as he delivers an intense blend of political superiority and personal vulnerability. An unusual but effective decision by director John O’Rourke puts McArdle in a room cold enough to turn his breath to mist as he speaks, every phrase physically hanging in the air.

As well as navigating a lopsided affair with the occupant of a throne, Carr and Villiers also had to face a challenge that is tricky in any century: dating a writer. Have a screaming barney with James and the next morning you shall receive, as Carr did, regal notepaper lamenting “your fiery boutades”. Get asked to go on a dirty weekend to Scotland – as Villiers was – and the booty call is worded thus: “This salmon-like instinct of our mind, restlessly both when we are awake and many times in our sleep, so stirred up in our thoughts and bended our desires to make a journey thither that we can never rest satisfied til it shall please God we may accomplish it.” I mean, it wants subbing but the lad’s got talent.

Russell definitely has the gift, his descriptions of Hampton Court as “the world’s most exclusive nightclub” and the masque, the palace entertainment James liked best, as “a cross between a Broadway musical and a party election broadcast” being two of many occasions where the presenter amuses as he informs. In his hands, James – brittle, hot-blooded, wordy, joyful James – comes newly alive.

• Queen James aired on BBC Two and is available on BBC iPlayer