The Tudors - arrggghhhhh!

Only just watched the first two seasons of this recently - remembered this thread. Taking it as purely a fictional tale, I think it is top notch viewing.
 
Spookily I finished watching the last couple of episodes last week - dont ask how :)

Its a cracking series and so wrong historically its brillant! Wasnt sure about the way they age JRM as King Hal but hey I've seen worse.
 
Yes, if you can cope with accepting it as fiction!! It's a BBC output entitled 'The Tudors' after one of our greatest Royal families and as such, should be presumed to at least try to be historically accurate! Yes, I agree, that if you can get your head around all the fiction they've introduced, it is a good series. But I can't get my head around the blatant re-writing of history in the name of this Royal family who re-shaped our country and without whom it would not be the same today.
 
Was there any truth in the bit they showed the other week where Henry supposedly went back to Anne of Cleeves or is that complete and utter fiction?
 
I haven't seen the programme in question but no, Henry didn't go back to Anne of Cleeves at any point - he was supposedly horrified on seeing her as her portrait showed her to be beautiful yet when he saw her he supposedly called her 'the mare of Flanders'. He backed out of the marriage straightaway and had her installed as the 'King's Sister' and insisted she be treated with due honours as such whilst bestowing estates on her.
 
I cannot bear to watch this series, aside from the hsitorical inaccuracies but especially after reading that JRM refused to put on a 'fat suit and become ugly' as Henry ages. Henry would be turning in his tomb if he knew a short, pretty, camp boy was supposed to be pretending to be him.
Apart from the fact he was put off by how she looked, he claimed Anne of Cleves had a pre contract of marriage with someone else, and as the Cleves family couldn't prove she hadn't, Henry was able to divorce her very quickly on those grounds. She had a very comfortable life compared to some of the other women in his life.
 
He used the supposed pre-contract with a European duke as a convenient loophole to get out of the marriage. He was good at doing that and had a fair bit of practice by the time he got round to Anne of Cleves.
 
Had a drink with JRM in London about 10 years ago.He bought champagne like it was going out of fashion and at a houseparty afterwards he sang his head off in the old Irish style.Was great craic but you have to wonder about the longterm effects of the lifestyle.
 
You have to bear in mind whilst its being shown on the BBC its actually an American series and we all know what they do to anything historical that doesnt involve them coming out on top!!

I say just watch it as a drama series that justhappens to borrow names from history.....
 
Aaarrrrgggggghhhhhhhhh - then rename the whole bloody thing!!!!! Not having a go at you, Ballydoyle, it's just that I see it that if there weren't enough juicy storylines involving cheating, secret lovers, secret love childs, murder, scheming and treason in any story about the Tudors, let alone one based on Henry, then write a whole new story altogether and call it something else, rather than re-write history with some bastardisation of the real story! What makes it even worse is, American though it is, it's being broadcast by the BBC of all channels, the one channel who should hold that same view I've just given. The biggest problem is that there will be a large proportion of the viewers who watch it who will believe that the fictional storylines within are indeed historical fact and as such the ACTUAL historical facts tend to get eroded away as the popular fiction takes over. It's not even as though they bother teaching Tudor history in schools; it's not as though they were arguably the most influential Royal family we've ever had and they didn't lay the foundations to shape the country into what it is today or anything like that.....
 
Last edited:
I think our school's teaching of the Tudors' period in history (in darkest Africa at the time) was a quick skip over Henry and his many wives, three or four sentences on the destruction of the abbeys, the fact he got fat and gimpy, and then fairly quickly onto Lizzie One and the birth of the British navy, our glorious empire expanding its bounds, etc., etc. Thus, as someone entirely ignorant of Tudor history, I'd like to be watching something that is, uh, historical! If I want something 'set' in Tudor times, then I'll probably grab any amount of the novels gracing our communal library's shelves here at the flats.

Same, though, as 'Braveheart' and any amount of other supposedly factual representations - no, they're okay around main dates and the big events, but the rest is not so much represented as - what's the word? - "interpreted".

I know that Shadz is a great history fan/buff and loves the stuff, so would no more like to see her beloved eras rewritten for dramatic effect than any of us would like to see replays of ZENYATTA winning her last race, just because it makes for a more sentimental ending!
 
I think the idea was to prduce a series that would sell overseas, and I'd imagine it has done rather well. Wouldn't English history be boring without our 'Enery and his shinanegans? The series I loved was The Virgin Queen with Ann Marie Duff; shown at the same time as the one with Helen Mirren, I much preferred this version. Perhaps slightly 'sexed up' compared the HM one, although not in the way the Tudors was. I liked the way she called the Duke of Leicester 'Robbie' and loved the music sang by The Mediaeval Babes. In fact, I bought the dvd for my daughter [don't think she was all that interested] so's I could re borrow it. Which I have done.
 
Oh, in the way I bought bright pink neon socks for my father (Teddy Boy style), believing he'd give them to me. Wronnggg! He adored them.
 
We weren't actually taught Tudor history at school - shocking, in my opinion! I did history for GSCE and really wanted to take it for A-level but couldn't as the timetable clashed directly with chemistry, which I was also taking. It wasn't until A-level that they actually taught the Tudors - too busy beforehand pissing about with Roosevelt's New Deal, the Cold War and the Russian Revolution!

I know what you're saying moehat about having a series to sell overseas but my point remains - are there not enough sex, lies, treason, murder, execution, scandal in the REAL story to make it interesting enough?!
 
Same here, Shadow. When we should have been studying the late Plantagenets, Tudors and Stuarts, the American Bicentenary was occurring so, to celebrate it, we studied American history. Then straight on to the Industrial Revolution.

You might be surprised to hear that I remember very little of the first part of the curriculum!
 
Last edited:
Having been foaled and grazed in America I am sooo embarrassed about this whole series. To make it worse my brother and wife were visiting us this summer and mentioned to us that we really ought to catch this wonderful series about Henry that has been on over there. (GRRRRR! :mad:)

It was impossible for me to understand how they could have been taken in by it. They believe (as no doubt at least 3/4 of the US) it is showing historical FACT. We do (or at least did) study English history and all the Kings.

Everything is reduced to bodice rippers with never aging lead men and women. Presumably the director has read The Picture Of Dorian Grey and Henry has one.

However I admit to having given up correcting them, and it is now compulsory viewing in our house to cheer us up. It's hilarious! :D
 
For those of you who "enjoyed" The Tudors (be it as an historical drama or comedy!) there are two new series on in the States right now along similar lines:

1 - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1582457/ - The Borgias starring Jeremy Irons amongst others. (Just getting hold of pilot will review tomorrow!) but I think I know what the "plot" lines will be!

2 - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1672189/ - Camelot starring the bird from Casino Royale, one of the vampire blokes from Twilight and an english bloke who was in Rome and does lots of sword films. Seen first/pilot episode and its DEF taking after the Tudors (both historically inaccurate and with lots of flesh on display)
 
Last edited:
More like Camelottaboobies!!

I would say if you can watch Tudors/Rome then you will probably survive this - will let you know what the Borgias is like ...... although with Jeremy Irons in it as the only name I recognise not holding out much hope!!
 
Its def a much bigger/better cast - JF, Eva Green and a few other long standing if not top drawer english talent.

Put it this way - compared to what IS on tv at the moment, ANYTHING has to be better right?!
 
Back
Top