Henry VIII on ITV #2

[darth vader]

My anger was ressurrected by Incitatus's comments on the above progam as i too thought it was a pile of pants. Anyone else feel let down by it? personally i thought that they spent too much time focusing on HB-C getting her kit off, and 'briefly sketched' the more important historical events of this era. And if that's meant to be Richmond Castle then i'm a dutchman - the real Richmond Castle is nowhere as near the river as that one is shown to be - anyone know where it really is?

[coggles]

TW7, London?

[archbishop]

darth - don't get knickers in a twist. It's supposed to be general entertainment and hopefully historically accurate. As we know this doesn't always happen. As with Hollywood changing history more often than I'd like to think. I didn't see it but from what I've read, it was historically accurate, with all the main bits mentioned. As for HB-C getting her kit off, is that a bad thing surely AB must have.

[incitatus]

historically accurate my aunt fanny. it got the women in the right order ande tht was it. thomas cromwell appeared before he should have, henrys history as king was missed out, and what about thomas more? this was like watergate without nixon. thomas more was the most important international figure in england, which is why the whole thing mattered and he died. the castle is leeds in kent by the way

[boognish76]

I concur with the above comments - it was sucktacular. Joss Ackland couldn't look less like Henry VII if he tried. Henry VII didn't tell Henry to marry Catherine, as he was opposed to the match, which is why Henry didn't marry her until after his father had died. And Helena BC is old enough to play Anne Boleyn's mother. And all these inaccuracies were in the first ten minutes! At which point I switched the telly off.

[molly]

Not well enough up on histoical details myself, but I though it was meant to be peak viewing drama, not an open university history lesson. For entertainment value I though it was fine. Besides, how can you fit everything of a 38 year reign into 4(?) hours. You've heard of artistic licence, poetic licence, why not dramatic license.

[archbishop]

Well said Molly.

[simon_says]

There are two sides to this discussion. If you want historical facts and accuracy, watch the fantastic series by David Starkey. On the other hand it was meant to be light entertainment. But now I think about it, it seems "dumbing down" is the norm and I for one am getting sick of it. ITV is by far the worst offender!

[coggles]

I never saw it, but wish I had now, for the cr@p factor! BTW, I was joking about my first answer, just in case you thought I was as badly educated as the producer seems to have been.

[incitatus]

why should we accept shoddy work because its entertainment? it was billed as a portrayal of henry the eighth, not a fictional work by bozo the clown. If they wanted to put on a historical fiction they could have called it jeremy the eighth. by pinning it down to a person they should respect the facts. If we did the same to, say, the holocaust, reran it without mentioning auschwitz, or cast hitler as a lovable rogue who was misunderstood then it wouldnt even reach the screen. This period is an important part of the formation of our national identity, so to misrepresent it in such a shoddy manner simply so that a posh trollopes jubblies can be better displayed is an appalling waste of money and effort, and educationally detrimental to anyone who watched it thinking it was other than panto. I await with interest the next set of gcse Tudors coursework

[darth vader]

OK i've sat back and let you folks give your opinions and now here are my closing thoughts: whilst i agree that it was first and foremost an entertainment programme and hard to get everything of a 38 year period into two programmes, i would agree with Incitatus that they could have made a bloody effort to get the few bits in that they used, as factual as possible. I also think that rather than be entertaining for the historical drama it was supposed to be, they a) dumbed it down b) sexed it up with (quite unnecessary at her age) naked HBC shots. coggles - sorry, i never got the joke anyway - is that the address of ITV i am guessing?

4 stars for effort everyone - you all get an extra one cos it's not often these days we can have a debate on AB without someone resorting to personal attacks/abuse and this is a nice exception!

[Jess]

If you didn't like it DON'T WATCH IT AGAIN, end of story! It was just a programme, so wind your neck back in!