Agreed, but Henry 8’s divorce was a tipping point/catalyst that moved things along.
Think about all the books, plays, movies etc that were written/ performed specifically focused on Henry and Anne Boleyn. It was a dramatic moment in history.
Did you get a chance to see Wolf Hall on BBC? What did you think of it?
That it most definitely was. That’s why I was disappointed by The Tudors. The 1970 series Six Wives of Henry VIII was so much better and then I’ve also read many of the books by Allison Weir and others as I’m a bit of an English history geek.
Did you get a chance to see Wolf Hall on BBC? What did you think of it?
I did see a couple of episodes and liked it very much. And Damian Lewis was surprisingly good casting as Henry VIII. Unfortunately, I starting watching it partway through and have just not gotten around to seeing the entire series. I believe it is available to stream on PBS and on Amazon Prime so I intend to set aside a rainy weekend and do some binge watching.
I’ve read some criticisms of Wolf Hall, one for the series as depicting a Tutor era house that was not built until the Elizabethan era, but that to me is not that big of a deal and certainly less glaring than the radiator in Henry’s bed chamber, the use of Victorian era coaches, a macadam driveway leading up to a manor house, the bad costuming and the oh so many other things wrong with The Tudors.
Some have also criticized both the series and the books it was based on for portraying Thomas Cromwell as a sympathetic character and Sir Thomas Moore the opposite. But you know, I also take for granted that some portrayals of Moore as being “saintly” and beyond reproach even as the Catholic Church venerates him as one, maybe somewhat skewed and not perhaps historical themselves.
And that’s not intended to be critical against the Catholic Church, but the political machinations and truthfully the power struggles of and against and the corruption of The Church during this time period lends me to take portrayals that cast either the complete hero or the complete villain with a grain of salt – real people tend to be much more complicated.
While my main interest and focus in English history starts with Stonehenge and runs through the Roman and Viking eras, and ends with the end Elizabeth the 1st reign, I’ve been enjoying the Masterpiece Theater series Victoria even though I do find it a bit Downton Abby-esc. But the main historical points of reference in the series seems to be accurate.