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Post by marion on May 28, 2021 11:38:19 GMT
On Channel 5 from Tuesday 1st June at 9.00 for 3 nights.
More Tudors! This time diversity of casting seems to be what has gripped media attention but the RT isn’t too damning, although it doesn’t exactly lavish it with praise. Channel 5 are calling it a psychological thriller rather than a historical drama apparently. Jodie Turner-Smith plays Anne and Paapa Essiedu (an RSC Hamlet no less) plays her brother George.
Judging from the trailer I would say this is going to be closer to The Tudors than to Wolf Hall, but sadly without a Jonathan Rhys Myers as Henry!
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Post by beverley61 on May 28, 2021 12:00:28 GMT
Yes I got that impression too, but then the last year of her life was like a thriller.
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Post by geometryman on May 28, 2021 21:30:06 GMT
My first reaction was, her again? - we had The Last Days of Anne Boleyn only a few months ago on BBC2.
But I enjoyed The Tudors despite its frequent departures from recorded history, and the colour-blind casting of this is somewhat intriguing, so I'll be giving it a go.
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Post by beverley61 on May 29, 2021 14:08:49 GMT
I will also give it a go. From her arrest and after her death the 'foreigness' of Anne was played up by Henry's PR machine. If this plays on it I will be disappointed because that would be lazy, but we'll see.
I read that her prayer book, or at least what people believed to be her prayer book has now been proven. More than that infra-red has shown that every aristocratic women into whoms possession it came, erased the name of the previous holder in what appears to be a secret chain of keepers. Each knowing what they had and passing it on.
At the time of her death owning and displaying such things could suggest you supported her and believed her innocent. Enough to get you a trip to somewhere unpleasant.
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Post by bidiein on Jun 1, 2021 21:06:10 GMT
Thoroughly enjoyed this new portrayal of Anne's final months. Jodie Turner Smith is a commanding presence on screen and her realisation, at the end of episode 1, that Henry had moved his affections on the Jane Seymour, was both moving and chilling.
Many historians site the famous jousting accident when Henry lay unconscious for hours as a turning point in his whole manner. The leg injury that plagued him all his life began as a result of the fall but with what we know now about head injuries and the long term consequences it is all too likely that the educated and intelligent Henry began to turn into the monster he became from the time he regained consciousness.
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Post by vicky on Jun 2, 2021 9:08:11 GMT
The acting, the costumes and the sets were excellent I thought but the script was a bit run of the mill to me. Maybe that was because it is such a familiar story. This drama is supposed to be telling it from a new perspective - Anne's. The only thing to suggest that seemed to be her rather progressive ideas about using the money from the Dissolution and I'm not sure that would have happened.
The Telegraph critic this morning doesn't rate it very highly (only 2 stars) which usually applies to something I've found quite enjoyable!
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Post by bidiein on Jun 2, 2021 10:25:36 GMT
I think it has been widely panned, script wise, but there is agreement that the cast are doing their best with the material available.
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Post by bidiein on Jun 2, 2021 12:35:00 GMT
After this casting it would have to be, wouldn't it?
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Post by cali4ster on Jun 2, 2021 12:36:45 GMT
Would it be acceptable to have a white actor play Martin Luther King or Nelson Mandela? No, and in asking the question you're at the same time aiming at the wrong end of history in drawing a comparison with those figures...they lived (and were very much participating) in a time of recent and on-going racial strife, Anne Boleyn did not (for more on that I can highly recommend Miranda Kaufman's "Black Tudors"). Who knows...it's only old paintings, sculptures, that give most of these historic figures ethnicity which, in turn, led to many white men making a good living portraying Jesus. What we can't have, however, is the Met investigating Anne Boleyn's beheading as a racially aggravated hate crime.
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Post by beverley61 on Jun 2, 2021 15:02:42 GMT
Anne's ideas about the spending of the money from the dissolution were progressive and very much disliked by those hoping to make a quick buck. Her ideas overall made her more dangerous than the fact she hadn't had a son.
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Post by marion on Jun 3, 2021 8:09:37 GMT
Well I’ve watched part 1 and I thought: AB was excellent, very imposing. GB was very good. Everyone else was unremarkable. The script was atrocious.
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Post by bidiein on Jun 3, 2021 8:29:57 GMT
GB - for a moment I thought Gary Barlow was in it.
The cast are giving it all they can but the script is poor.
But I will stick with it and watch the final part tonight.
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Post by linseed on Jun 3, 2021 9:44:57 GMT
I’ve now watched the first 2 episodes of this. Agree about the bad script, otherwise I like how AB is portrayed, she is, as many have said, giving it her all. I will watch the final episode tonight, but suspect I will forget the whole thing fairly soon
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Post by vicky on Jun 3, 2021 11:05:24 GMT
Jodie Turner-Smith isn't an actress I have come across before but I agree that she is playing this part well - or as well as she is allowed to by the script and direction. One of the draw backs of the whole thing I think is that, apart from Anne, Henry and George Boleyn, none of the characters are distinguishable from each other. Well, I suppose Cromwell and Chapuys are but even they are very one dimensional. I think it suffers from being compressed into three episodes which makes it all too rushed for the sense of intrigue and plotting to develop. I think too that it suffers from coming after Wolf Hall which will always be the definitive dramatisation of Henry VIII's court for me. I will be interested tonight to see how Anne's execution scene compares with Clare Foy's performance. I doubt very much that it will live up to that which I think was one of those never-to-be-forgotten television moments.
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Post by marion on Jun 3, 2021 11:16:00 GMT
My current lockdown TV treat/project after Battlestar Galactica is The Tudors on All4 and really that is superb compared to this! Even with all the silliness and inaccuracies, 😄. I think that is because The Tudors is a full throttle production with some good actors in the supporting cast, with distinguishable characters. Of course that played out over 38 episodes rather than 3.
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