The Tudors is a Canadian-produced historical fiction television series filmed in Ireland, created by Michael Hirst and produced for the American premium cable television channel Showtime. The series, named after the Tudor dynasty, is loosely based upon the reign of King Henry VIII of England.[1][2]
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The series has been produced by Peace Arch Entertainment for Showtime in association with Reveille Productions, Working Title Television, and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and was 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' premiere on April 1, 2007, was the highest-rated Showtime series in three years.[3] In April 2007, the show was renewed for a second season,[3] and in that month the BBC announced it had acquired exclusive United Kingdom broadcast rights for the series, which it started to broadcast on October 5, 2007. Canada's CBC had begun broadcasting the show on October 2, 2007.[4]
Season Two debuted on Showtime on March 30, 2008, and on BBC 2 on August 1, 2008. Production on Season Three began on June 16, 2008 in Bray, County Wicklow Ireland,[5][6] and that season premiered on Showtime on April 5, 2009, and debuted in Canada on CBC on September 30, 2009. The day after broadcast, downloadable episodes debuted in Canada on MoboVivo.[7]
Showtime announced April 13, 2009, that it had renewed the show for a fourth and final season. The network ordered 10 episodes that were first broadcast on April 11, 2010.[8][9] The series finale was broadcast on June 20, 2010. The final season was shown in Canada on CBC starting September 22, 2010, and ending on November 23, 2010.
International distribution rights are owned by Sony Pictures Television International.
Season One chronicles the period of Henry VIII's reign in which his effectiveness as king is tested by international conflicts as well as political intrigue in his own court, while the pressure of fathering a male heir compels him to reject his wife, Katherine of Aragon,[10] in favour of Anne Boleyn. He also has a string of affairs and fathers an illegitimate son with his mistress, Elizabeth "Bessie" Blount. The son, Henry FitzRoy, later dies.
Season Two finds Henry as the head of the Church of England, the result of his break with the Catholic Church over its refusal to grant him a divorce from Katherine.[10] During his battle with Rome, he secretly marries a pregnant Anne, who later gives birth to his second daughter Elizabeth I. Anne's own failure to produce a son dooms her as Henry's attention shifts toward Jane Seymour.
Season Three focuses on Henry's marriages to Jane Seymour and Anne of Cleves, the birth of his son Edward VI, his ruthless suppression of the Pilgrimage of Grace, the downfall of Thomas Cromwell, and the beginnings of Henry's relationship with the free-spirited Katherine Howard. Henry reconciles with his daughters Mary I and Elizabeth I.[11][12]
Season Four focuses on Henry's ill-fated marriage to Katherine Howard and his final, more congenial, marriage to Katherine Parr. The aging king seeks military glory by capturing Boulogne, France. In his final hours, he is troubled by the ghosts of his dead wives.[13]
| Season | # of episodes | Season premiere | Season finale |
|---|---|---|---|
| Season 1 | 10 | 1 April 2007 | 10 June 2007 |
| Season 2 | 10 | 30 March 2008 | 1 June 2008 |
| Season 3 | 8 | 5 April 2009 | 24 May 2009 |
| Season 4 | 10 | 11 April 2010 | 20 June 2010 |
Many 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.[1] As creator Hirst noted, "Showtime commissioned me to write an entertainment, a soap opera, and not history ... And we wanted people to watch it."[2] He added that some changes were made for production considerations and some to avoid viewer confusion, and that "any confusion created by the changes is outweighed by the interest the series may inspire in the period and its figures."[2]
Time is compressed in the series, giving the impression that things happened closer together than they actually did or along a different timeline. By the time of most of the events in this series, King Henry VIII was already in his mid-to-late 30s and at least a decade older than Anne Boleyn; they were not married until he was in his early 40s. In The Tudors, the two are cast younger (and seemingly closer in age) and the courtship lasts about ten episodes.[2] Historically, Cardinal Wolsey died in Leicester en route to London to answer charges of treason, while in the series he is imprisoned and commits suicide.[2] Wolsey's death came in 1530, three years before the death of Henry's sister; in the series, the two events are juxtaposed. The assassination attempt on Anne during her coronation procession was also invented by Hirst "to illustrate how much the English people hated her."[2]
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 younger sister, Princess Mary Tudor, coupled with the name of his elder sister, Margaret Tudor, to avoid confusion with Henry's daughter, Mary I of England.[2][15] 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 a fictional very elderly Portuguese king, who lives only a few days until she smothers him in his sleep.[2][16] 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 in fact married to King James IV of Scotland and was grandmother of Mary, Queen of Scots.
The king's natural son Henry Fitzroy was shown dying at a very young age, when in fact he lived long enough to be a witness to Anne Boleyn's execution.
Charles V, King of the Romans, whose parents were rulers of Castille, is given a Spanish accent when dealing with the king of England (S1E3), when in fact he was Flemish born and French educated; indeed, it seems he never mastered Castilian, let alone spoke with a strong Spanish accent.
Thomas More is seen ordering the death of Simon Fish by burning at the stake. However, Simon Fish while arrested for heresy died in prison of bubonic plague. His widow married James Bainham (another outspoken religious reformer), who was ultimately burned at the stake by Thomas More. It appears that the writers have confabulated Simon Fish with James Bainham.
Neither of Henry VIII's sisters, Margaret or Mary, was betrothed to the King of Portugal. Margaret died of a stroke as the Queen Dowager of Scotland, mother of James V. Mary returned after her French husband King Louis XII (Valois), who was 30 years her senior, died only two months after their marriage.
The Countess of Salisbury (Princess Mary's governess) was executed during Katherine Howard's time as Queen-consort. In the series, however, she (and her son, Lord Montagu) is executed before Henry meets Anne of Cleves.
The premiere of The Tudors on April 1, 2007, was the highest-rated Showtime series debut in three years.[3] On March 23, 2008, The New York Times called The Tudors a "steamy period drama ... [that] critics could take or leave, but many viewers are eating up."[2] A March 28, 2008 review, also by the New York Times, reported that the series "fails to live up to the great long-form dramas cable television has produced" largely because "it radically reduces the era's thematic conflicts to simplistic struggles over personal and erotic power."[1] Overall, the show had generally good reviews with 64% favorable reviews for the first season, 68% for the second and 72% for the third seasons, according to the ratings site Metacritic.
In the United States, season 1: The series premiere at 10 p.m. drew almost 870,000 viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research. Coupled with the 404,000 viewers that tuned in the hour immediately following, Showtime averaged 1.3 million viewers for the show's debut night, the most since Fat Actress in March 2005. The 10 p.m. bow outperformed the inaugural linear screenings for Weeds and Dexter, the network's leading comedy and drama, by 78% in August 2005 and 44% in October 2006, respectively.
The series also proved its mettle opener in the digital realm, earning a combined 1 million views online and on-demand via cable affiliates and through Sho.com, and such partners as Yahoo, MSN, Netflix and IMDB. the numbers exclude contributions from AOL, DirecTV and Dish Network.[17]
Season 2: Showtime's June 3, 2008 second-season climax of The Tudors ended with a ratings bang. The episode drew 852,000 viewers for its season two finale, 83% above the 465,000 viewers that tuned into the show's season-one finale, Showtime officials said. The 9 p.m. telecast is also the second-highest for the series, trailing only the 964,000 viewers for the show's April 1, 2007 debut. The season-two finale, along with an 11 p.m. replay, drew a combined 1 million viewers, 59% above the previous year's 668,000 combined audience for the finale (10 p.m. and 11 p.m.).[18]
| DVD Name | Release dates | # of Ep | Additional Information | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Region 1 | Region 2 | Region 4 | ||||
| Canada | United States | |||||
| Season One | 8 January 2008[19] | 10 December 2007[20] | 19 March 2008[21] | 10 | The four-disc box set includes all 10 episodes. Bonus features include commentary tracks on selected episodes. There is a special edition in United Kingdom, with a headless picture for the cover, exclusive of Amazon.co.uk.[22] This season was released on Blu-ray in Europe and Canada.[23] | |
| Season Two | 11 November 2008[24] | 6 January 2009[25] | 13 October 2008[26] | 7 July 2009[27] | 10 | The four-disc box set includes all 10 episodes. Bonus features include commentary tracks on selected episodes, as well as other featurettes. This season has also been released on Blu-ray in Europe and Canada.[28] |
| Season Three | 10 November 2009[29] | 15 December 2009[30] | 7 December 2009[31] | 23 November 2009[32] | 8 | The three disc box set includes all 8 episodes. Bonus features include audio commentary on certain episodes, an exclusive tour of Hampton Court and an interview with Joss Stone. |
| Season Four | 9 November 2010 | 12 October 2010 | 21 March 2011[33] | 24 November 2010[34] | 10 | The three-disc box set includes all 10 episodes. |
An original soundtrack for each season, composed by Trevor Morris, has been released by Varèse Sarabande.
| Season | Release Date | Catalog Number |
|---|---|---|
| Season One | 12/11/07 | 302 066 867 2 |
| Season Two | 04/14/09 | 302 066 959 2 |
| Season Three | 08/24/10 | 302 067 039 2 |
| Season Four | 10/12/10 | 302 067 049 2 |
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.[35]
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.[36] Brian Kirk was also nominated for Directing, but lost to Lenny Abrahamson of Prosperity. The series won the 2008 Emmy Award for Best Costume Design, and later six awards at the Irish Film and Television Awards in 2009. In 2010 it was nominated for seven Irish Film and Television Awards, winning one in the category Best Supporting Actress in Television (Sarah Bolger).