The Bbc Cancels Henry Viii

[naomi24]

Henry VIII, arguably the most well-known British monarch in history, and certainly one of the longest reigning and most influential to British culture, will be skipped over in a new BBC history programme chronicling Britain over 1,500 years.

According to the producer of the BBC Two series, Russell Barnes, the team 'gave up on Henry VIII' after receiving Turner Prize winning artist Jeremy Deller's flat-out refusal to discuss a painting called Field of the Cloth of Gold. Mr Deller condemned Henry as 'one of the greatest a**holes in British culture'.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10656629/BBC-art-history-skips-reign-Henry-VIII-Tudor-king-horrible.html

Shame on the BBC for capitulating. They should have directed Mr Deller to his bike and asked someone else.

[TheChair]

A history of art, not a history of the UK.

[naomi24]

Pardon?

[aelmpvw]

// 'one of the greatest a**holes in British culture'//
potentially the list of exclusions for discussion is going to be endless

[New Judge]

Mr Deller needs to brush up on his history and look at the Tudor period in a wider context instead of judging it by today's standards. Might be a bit difficult for someone who, it seems, is so up himself.

[jno]

it seems they did ask other people but nobody was interested in the picture they'd chosen.

What could they have said - "Okay, he was a serial wife-killer but the picture shows he could throw a great party with the money he stole from monasteries?"

[Ken4155]

The programme is about the history of art in all it's forms, hence the inclusion of Stormzy. Henry VIII has not been cancelled.

[gingejbee]

^ah, but "the BBC cancels Henry VIII" is so much more interesting/arresting as a headline...ask any Daily Mail reader.

[naomi24]

gingebee, actually this has been taken from a Telegraph report ... but that carries a paywall which some here may not subscribe to. If you're too intellectually superior to read the Mail, you may like to read it there.

Yes, Henry has been cancelled. He was there ... and now he's not.

[jno]

in fairness, gingejbee, even the Mail didn't use that as a headline - only Answerbank.

[naomi24]

No, JNO, I used it - not Answerbank. It suits admirably.

[Gromit]

The format of the show appears to be 8 points in British history spanning 1500 years and 8 accompanying artworks. Then 8 minor celebrities waffling on about the artwork (presumably having just read the wikipedia page about it). And it turns out no one had a good thing to say about H8 or the painting.

Not really the end of the world, or a BBC cancelling offence. If you want a comedian view on H8, I suggest you watch this…

[jno]

it was mooted as a programme, they couldn't find anyone who wanted to appear on it, so it won't be made. The programme wasn't cancelled as it didn't exist; Henry wasn't cancelled, as he's as dead as ever; the only thing "cancelled" was an idea.

I don't personally think he was influential, though hiring a European court painter was a good precedent followed by many of his descendants. He blew a lot of money on wasteful wars, with Wales being the only place annexed to England. The religious divisions he sowed took centuries to heal. He was a despot who killed anyone who crossed him, even his wives.

If the Tudor era is to be covered, Elizabeth's reign would be a much better starting place.

[THECORBYLOON]

"The eight-part series, called Art That Made Us, intends to explore turbulent periods of British history through the lens of art, literature, music and design "

Is the omission of Henry VIII from a single episode really evidence of his being "cancelled" by the BBC?

[Ken4155]

Yeah jno, but his antics did spawn some great drama for tv and cinema:-)

[novalis]

I agree with Jno that an artwork from the Elizabethan era would have been a better representation of the Tudor period. The Field of Cloth of Gold was basically a P.R. exercise with Henry VIII and Francis I swearing undying friendship while trying to outdo each other and each plotting against the other behind their backs.

[jno]

I blame Charles Laughton, Ken. Refinement's a thing of the past!

[burlyshirley]

I actually agree with Mr Deller about Henry VIII, always thought he was a totally vile man.

[naomi24]

The purpose of the programme is to explore turbulent periods in British history. Few more turbulent than Henry’s reign. ‘Nice’ doesn’t fit the bill.

[THECORBYLOON]

"Each episode of Art That Made Us explores eight to ten artworks from around the United Kingdom. The works and their context will be discussed and analysed by a wide range of contributors, as well as encountered on location by contemporary working artists. They link the past to the present, showing the impact and inspiration of historic works for their own art today.

Examples of the artworks include the 5th century clay figure Spong Man; the epic Welsh poem Y Gododdin; the Lincoln Cathedral wooden carved misericords; The Book of Margery Kempe by Margery Kempe; Veni Sancte Spiritus by John Dunstaple; The Penicuik Jewels associated with Mary, Queen of Scots; Shakespeare’s Othello; Milton’s Paradise Lost; Aphra Behn’s The Rover; Christopher Wren’s Dome of St Paul’s; Jonathan Swift’s satirical novel A Modest Proposal; Robert Burn’s poem A Man’s a Man for a’That; Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park; JMW Turner’s painting Rain, Steam and Speed; North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell; Walter Sickert’s painting The Camden Town Nudes; Barbara Hepworth’s Contrapuntal Forms; W B Yeat’s poem Easter, 1916; A Taste of Honey by Shelagh Delaney; Hanif Kureishi’s Buddha of Suburbia; the Belfast Peace Walls and Stormzy at Glastonbury."

[jno]

lots more turblulent periods in British history really, naomi - Roman invasion, Alfred fighting back the Danes, the Normans, the Anarchy while Stephen and Matilda fought each other, the Black Death and huge social changes that followed, the Wars of the Roses, the socio-religious changes that brought the Civil Wars, the growth of two British empires, the industrial and agrarian revolutions, the digital revolution (ongoing) - honestly, Henry VIII wouldn't even be in my top ten, and that's only English history for the first two thirds of it.