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The Tudors

Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Henry VIII and Annabelle Wallis as Jane Seymour in The Tudors
  • Posted at 4:50pm
  • 13 August 2009
  • by AlisonGraham-RT
  • 7 comments

There's a scene in the second episode of The Tudors (series three starts on BBC2 on Friday 21 August) where Henry VIII's wife, Jane Seymour, is being attended by her ladies-in-waiting.

Oh the costumes! Oh the jewellery! Oh don't they look like Girls Aloud, I thought. If they'd suddenly got themselves into formation and burst into Sound of the Underground, I wouldn't have been in the least bit surprised.

But that's The Tudors for you. Sumptuously, expensively glossy and gloriously kitsch, it's tosh, but compelling, mightily enjoyable tosh. As with Desperate Romantics, no-one surely in their right mind would watch The Tudors in the hope of receiving any kind of history lesson. That would be like watching Murder, She Wrote in the expectation of a state-of-the-art account of US methods of crime detection.

No, watch The Tudors for no other reason than it's bonkers. Totally, completely barmy. Consider the accents: as it's an Irish co-production (with Canada), a lot of the actors are Irish, including its star, Jonathan Rhys Meyers. Which is fair enough. But they are playing Englishmen, and their origins just can't stop leaking through.

In the first episode, as pesky northern rebels protest at Henry's destruction of the monasteries, Robert Aske, a Yorkshireman, addresses other Yorkshiremen. The trouble is, Aske (played by Gerald McSorley, a fine actor) doesn't sound like a Yorkshireman. He sounds like an Irishman.

So you've got the truly bizarre prospect of an Irish actor trying to sound like a Yorkshireman rousing a rabble of other supposed Yorkshiremen most of whom sound Irish, however hard they try to increase their "by heck" quotient. It's incongruous to say the least. And hilarious.

Then there's the sex, lots and lots of sex, though Henry is largely behaving himself now that he's married to Jane Seymour who, as played by Annabelle Wallis, is, to quote Blackadder, wetter than a haddock's bathing costume.

Boy does that woman know how to simper, lowering her eyes and her voice as she canoodles with her "master", looking and sounding for all the world like Princess Diana.

The thing with The Tudors is that you know exactly where you are with all of the characters without anyone having to make a real stab at decent characterisation. Baddies wear black and scowl (James Frain as wicked Cromwell, for instance. If only he had a moustache to twirl).

The good people, like wet Jane, wear lots of white and waft about like big girls' blouses. But so what, if you start thinking too hard about this stuff, your brain will fizz and explode. Just enjoy it for the torrid pap it so obviously is.

**

Alison Graham is TV editor of Radio Times - read her column in the latest issue of Radio Times magazine, on sale now.

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Comments

  • Posted on 30 August 2009
  • at 12:09am
  • by colin

I must say the 'red-hot poker treatment' dished out in this week's double header, fair brought tears to the eyes. I could however nominate a few for a dose of the same!!

  • Posted on 24 August 2009
  • at 1:10pm
  • by LauraPledger-RT

FAO Win - The athletics coverage overran by ten minutes on Friday, delaying the start of The Tudors on both BBC2 and BBC HD. Unfortunately there are no repeat showings, so BBC iPlayer is your best bet to catch up on that double bill.

  • Posted on 23 August 2009
  • at 3:27pm
  • by Win

I set my HDR to record the much awaited new series of "The Tudors". When I settled down to watch the recording, all I got was 6 minutes of athletics and then it finished!! I am really annoyed as I was looking forward to watching this on my new HD TV. I cant find any repeats this week. Will there be any to catch up other than on BBC downloads?

  • Posted on 22 August 2009
  • at 1:37pm
  • by Ilikethis

I agree Jean, I think it is great fun! I avoided it because of all the snotty comments in the press and got hooked by watching the last half of a repeat of the episode in series two where Queen Catherine died, since then i've caught up via dvd box sets (how I love them) and have been very much looking forward to series 3.

I enjoy David Starkey's programmes too but am adult enough to decide what I want to watch and why and to understand the difference between historical fact and historical drama.

  • Posted on 21 August 2009
  • at 6:05pm
  • by Jean

I'm with Alison Graham. It's enormous fun. Anyone who has an inkling of history will know it's hopelessly inaccurate, but some of us quite like some entertainment on a Friday night! David Starkey is all very well, but oh how he likes to let us know the depths of his knowledge - and prejudice - did you ever hear him on The Moral Maze on Radio 4?

  • Posted on 14 August 2009
  • at 1:22pm
  • by Kerrie

I love this programme for a little bit of escapism on a Friday night, do we really care if its historically accurate, we have dusty old historians for that. I watch it for the sheer over the topness of it all, and I for cant wait.

  • Posted on 13 August 2009
  • at 6:43pm
  • by lavinia

I agree with David Starkey, this sort of rubbish shames the BBC. Author Dr.Tracy Borman does her reputation as an historian no credit by seemingly approving this dumbed down drivel.

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