The Tudors

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Tudors
Promotional picture for The Tudors
Genre	Historical fiction
Created by	Michael Hirst
Starring	Jonathan Rhys Meyers Sam Neill (Season 1) Jeremy Northam (Seasons 1 & 2) Natalie Dormer (Seasons 1 & 2) Henry Cavill (Seasons 1-) Maria Doyle Kennedy (Seasons 1 & 2) Jamie Thomas King (Season 2) Hans Matheson James Frain (Seasons 1-) Peter O' Toole (Season 2)
Theme music composer	Trevor Morris
Country of origin	Ireland Canada United Kingdom
Language(s)	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	20 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Eric Fellner Tim Bevan Ben Silverman Teri Weinberg Sheila Hockin
Producer(s)	James Flynn Gary Howsam
Location(s)	Ireland
Running time	50-58 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	Showtime
Picture format	16x9 widescreen ratio
Original airing	April 1, 2007
External links
Official website
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

The Tudors is a historical fiction television series created and entirely written by British screenwriter Michael Hirst. The series is loosely based upon the early reign of English monarch Henry VIII.

The series is produced by Peace Arch Entertainment for Showtime in association with Reveille Eire (Ireland), Working Title Films (United Kingdom) and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and is filmed in Ireland. The first two episodes debuted on DirecTV, Time Warner Cable OnDemand, Netflix, Verizon FiOS On Demand, Internet Movie Database and on the series' website before the official series premiere on Showtime. The Tudors' April 1, 2007 debut was the highest rated Showtime series debut in three years.^[1] In April 2007, the show was renewed for a second season,^[1] and in that month the BBC announced it had acquired exclusive United Kingdom broadcast rights for the series, which began airing on 5 October 2007. Canada's CBC, began airing the show on 2 October 2007.^[2]Season 1 is repeating on CBC's digital cable channel Bold beginning in April 2008.

Season 2 of The Tudors began airing on Showtime on 30 March 2008, and will be broadcast on other channels in the fall of 2008. The series has been renewed for a third season to air in 2009, with production slated to begin on 16 June 2008 in Dublin, Ireland.^[3][4]

Contents 1 Cast 2 Episodes 3 Departures from history 4 Reception 5 Ratings 5.1 Awards 6 References 7 See also 8 External links

[edit] Cast

Main article: List of The Tudors characters

Role	Actor	Seasons
King Henry VIII	Jonathan Rhys Meyers	1, 2
Charles Brandon	Henry Cavill	1, 2
Anne Boleyn	Natalie Dormer	1, 2
Katherine of Aragon [5]	Maria Doyle Kennedy	1, 2
Thomas Cromwell	James Frain	1, 2
Thomas Boleyn	Nick Dunning	1, 2
Thomas More	Jeremy Northam	1, 2
Thomas Wyatt	Jamie Thomas King	1, 2
Jane Seymour	Anita Briem	2
Thomas Cranmer	Hans Matheson	2
Pope Paul III	Peter O'Toole	2
Cardinal Thomas Wolsey	Sam Neill	1
Anthony Knivert	Callum Blue	1
Duke of Norfolk	Henry Czerny	1
William Compton	Kristen Holden-Ried	1
Margaret Tudor	Gabrielle Anwar	1

[edit] Episodes

Main article: List of The Tudors episodes

[edit] Departures from history

Events in the series differ from events as they actually happened in history. Liberties are taken with character names, relationships, physical appearance and the timing of events.

Time is conflated in the series, giving the impression that things happened closer together than they actually did. By the time of most of the events in this series, King Henry VIII was already in his mid-to-late 30s. Henry was about a decade older than Anne Boleyn, who was born circa 1501, and did not seriously begin his pursuit of her until he was in his mid-thirties.

The character of Henry's sister, called "Princess Margaret" in the series, is actually a composite of his two sisters: the life events of his youngest sister, Princess Mary Tudor, coupled with the name of his eldest sister, Margaret Tudor (to avoid confusion with Henry's daughter, Mary I of England).^[6] Historically, Henry's sister Princess Mary first married the French King Louis XII. The union lasted approximately three months, until his death; Louis was succeeded by his cousin Francis I, who was married to Louis' daughter Claude of France. Mary subsequently married Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk. As The Tudors begins, Henry is already negotiating a peace treaty with Francis; the series' Princess Margaret thus marries the Portuguese king, who lives only a few days until she smothers him in his sleep.^[7] By the time of the events of this series, the historical Brandon (who was already in his early 40s) and Princess Mary were long married with three children. Henry's eldest sister, Margaret Tudor, was actually married to King James IV of Scotland and became the grandmother of Mary, Queen of Scots.

Henry VIII is referred to as King of Ireland in several episodes. However, the position of King of Ireland was not created until 1541. During the period that the show depicts, Henry would only have been referred to as Lord of Ireland.

While Bessie Blount was famously one of Henry VIII's mistresses and did give Henry an illegitimate son (Henry FitzRoy), historically, her son did not die as a small child. FitzRoy died at the age of 17 in 1536, roughly 10 years before the death of his father, Henry VIII. Blount was also not married until after the birth of Henry FitzRoy.

The papal politics depicted in the first several episodes of the series also have no clear relation to actual events. A Pope Alexander is depicted as on his death bed at the time of the Field of the Cloth of Gold meeting between Henry and Francis (in 1520), whereas the actual pope at that time, Leo X, died suddenly at the very end of 1521, and there had not been a pope named Alexander since 1503, before the beginning of Henry's reign. A Cardinal Orsini is depicted as being elected following the death of the fictional Alexander, which, again, does not correspond to actual history, when the Emperor's tutor Adrian of Utrecht was elected to succeed Leo, and, following his death just a year later, Cardinal Medici, who as Clement VII would refuse to permit Henry's divorce, was elected to the papal throne.

In the first episode of season one an English ambassador described as the uncle of Henry VIII is murdered in Italy by Frenchmen; the historical Henry VIII had no such uncle. However, the character is named "Courtenay," suggesting William Courtenay, 1st Earl of Devon, who was married to Henry's aunt Catherine of York but died of pleurisy in 1511. There is also no historical evidence that composer Thomas Tallis was bisexual, as portrayed in the series. Plus Tallis did not perform before the court until at least 10 years (1543) after the events portrayed in the beginning of the series.

The Palace of Whitehall as shown to be the home of Henry VIII from the beginning of the series, only fell into Henry's hands in 1530 after he removed Cardinal Wolsey from power. Up until this point in time it was called York Place, and was taken by Henry to be his home with his fiancée Anne Boleyn.^[8] The Palace was not referred to as Whitehall Palace until as much as a decade after.

In season one, Henry is seen composing "Greensleeves" for Anne Boleyn. The melody he plays is actually "What Child Is This" and not in the Dorian mode as "Greensleeves" was originally written. The alterations to the original melody as seen in "What Child Is This" did not occur until 1865, more than 300 years later.

In the second episode of season one Henry VIII is seen celebrating the birth of his son and fires a flintlock to do so. However, this type of musket was not invented until 1630, a century later. Henry could have used a weapon called a culverin, which was a rudimentary weapon that was very like a flintlock, but shaped differently.

Cardinal Wolsey was not imprisoned and did not commit suicide. After being accused of treason, he set out for London to answer the charges and died en route in Leicester. Wolsey's death came in 1530, three years before the death of Henry's sister Mary; in the series, the two events are juxtaposed. Also, it was not until the year 1630, 27 years after the death of Henry's daughter Elizabeth I, that Cardinals of the Catholic Church took the style of "Eminence", as is accorded to Cardinal Wolsey in the series.

William Brereton did not confess to adultery with Queen Anne and almost certainly was not a Papal agent. He was a wealthy magnate who had large landholdings in the Welsh Marches, where he was ruthless and unpopular, and was probably accused due to Cromwell's desire to remove a festering political problem.

Also, Thomas Cranmer was not present at Anne Boleyn's execution, nor did he instigate the crowd to kneel when she did to be beheaded. He was walking with Alexander Ales when it happened and is reported to have sat down and wept when the hour came.

[edit] Reception

Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (December 2007)

[edit] Ratings

Season 1's numbers were spectacular with 964,000 viewers. Season 2 averaged a total of 912,000 viewers for its first episode alone.^[9]

[edit] Awards

The Tudors was nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Drama Series in 2007. Jonathan Rhys Meyers was also nominated for the Best Actor in a Television Drama Golden Globe for his role.^[10] The series was nominated for eight Irish Film and Television Awards in 2008 and won seven, including Best Drama Series, acting awards for Jonathan Rhys Meyers (Lead Actor), Nick Dunning (Supporting Actor) and Maria Doyle Kennedy (Supporting Actress), and craft awards for Costume Design, Production Design and Hair/Makeup. ^[11]

[edit] References

[edit] See also

• List of The Tudors characters
• List of The Tudors episodes
• The Six Wives of Henry VIII

[edit] External links

• Official website
• The Tudors at the Internet Movie Database
• Tudors Wiki
• What The Tudors gets right about history