If you know the history, then you will enjoy this interpretation. If not, you can take this as your history and learn of the reasoning and lack of behind this exciting time in history.
Riveting is, to say the least, as you expect this to be a documentary. Upon viewing it you find that it is anything but. As with all BBC productions, there is no equivalent. A few liberties were taken with history, but you just do not care because you are too busy kibitzing.
The Six Wives of Henry VIII cannot be told in less than six programs. Each program or play has an appropriate title that explains the next queen. If the quality of the writing varies that is because they have different writers, and it shows. When I first say that the episode "Catherine of Aragon" was written by Rosemary Ann Sission I knew we had a winner as she was also the screenwriter for "Strong Poison" in the Lord Peter Wimsey (1987) (TV) series. So, you can imagine how amazed I was to find that the episode "Anne Boleyn" was written even more strongly.
The unifying element is Keith Michell who plays a spoiled brat, oops I mean Henry VIII. He starts out clean-shaven in his pageboy hairstyle and ends up as scruffy as his personality by the last play. It helps to have some background information about time and place. Yet they fill it in well as they describe the current events and how they were influenced by Henry VIII and his Six Wives.
Riveting is, to say the least, as you expect this to be a documentary. Upon viewing it you find that it is anything but. As with all BBC productions, there is no equivalent. A few liberties were taken with history, but you just do not care because you are too busy kibitzing.
The Six Wives of Henry VIII cannot be told in less than six programs. Each program or play has an appropriate title that explains the next queen. If the quality of the writing varies that is because they have different writers, and it shows. When I first say that the episode "Catherine of Aragon" was written by Rosemary Ann Sission I knew we had a winner as she was also the screenwriter for "Strong Poison" in the Lord Peter Wimsey (1987) (TV) series. So, you can imagine how amazed I was to find that the episode "Anne Boleyn" was written even more strongly.
The unifying element is Keith Michell who plays a spoiled brat, oops I mean Henry VIII. He starts out clean-shaven in his pageboy hairstyle and ends up as scruffy as his personality by the last play. It helps to have some background information about time and place. Yet they fill it in well as they describe the current events and how they were influenced by Henry VIII and his Six Wives.