The Tudors

With the dozens of films and TV miniseries concerning the reign of Henry VIII, you would think there wouldn't be need for another one, but the Showtime series The Tudors, which debuted in 2007, proves there's room for more, especially when it can include some naughty cable-TV nudity.

I have just finished watching the first season, and while it is historically loose, it has enough in there to satisfy a British history buff. We begin with Henry frustrated that his queen, Katharine of Aragon, has not given him a male heir. Truth be told, since she's older and pious, she really doesn't do it for him anymore. He has plenty of concubines, and if Katharine had given him a son he likely would have remained married to her and England today would still be a Catholic nation.

But she didn't, and Henry looks to the daughter of a nobleman. She's Anne Boleyn, and this season covers Henry's pursuit of her (he didn't have to try hard--her father pushed her towards him) and then subsequent wrangling with the Pope over getting an annulment. It all hinges on whether Katharine, who was married to Henry's brother first, actually slept with that brother. She denies it.

This has been covered in many works of art, including the very recent film The Other Boleyn Girl, reviewed on this site, and the novel Wolf Hall, which I just read. It's interesting to note the differences. In The Tudors, Anne's sister Mary is hardly mentioned, when she actually bore Henry a son, and her mother, who is a prominent character in The Other Boleyn Girl, is omitted entirely. Thomas Cromwell, who has given so much humanity in Wolf Hall, is presented here as an oily myrmidon.

The major character of this season is Cardinal Wolsey, magnificently portrayed by Sam Neill (who once played King Charles II). He is corrupt and wily, and we can always see him thinking ahead. He is against Henry's attempt to divorce, but ties his fortune to making it happen, and when it doesn't go well he is doomed. The scheming of the various figures in the court, including the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk, is old-fashioned fun.

Jonathan Rhys Meyers stars as Henry, and he's a vigorous king. Natalie Dormer is Anne Boleyn, and she looks just right, with just the hint of a smirk on her face almost all the time. I was most impressed with a favorite actor of mine, Jeremy Northam, as Sir Thomas More, the pious man who would replace Wolsey as the King's chancellor, and had no tolerance for Protestant reforms. There's a great line in the season finale, when Henry, who knows that he's ready to break with the Pope, asks More, "How many have you burned?" More tells him six, and that they "were all well done." Certainly this is a portent for the second season.

To set the historical record straight: Wolsey did not commit suicide, and the character of Henry's sister Margaret (played by Gabrielle Anwar), is a composite of two sisters. Also, the King's bastard son, Henry Fitzroy, lived until he was a teenager, not dying as a toddler. Time has been telescoped, and I wonder whether Henry really used the gerund "Fucking."