Saturday 9 August 2008

The Tudors

I actually watched a bit of this the other night before switching in despair to a repeat of yet another Poirot. Call me a boring old pedant if you like - it's probably a fair description after all - but I just couldn't get past the costumes. They were so unutterably wrong. The equivalent would be a series set in 1905 with all the cast dressed in roaring twenties style. I can only think that the people responsible thought that Henry VIII era clothes weren't 'sexy' enough so decided to go for something a bit later.

Then there were modes of address. One minute a woman was Lady Elizabeth, the next Mistress Somethingorother. Lord above, she's either one or the other! She can't be (censored) both! And whichever she was, belonging to the court and all that, it's highly likely that she would wear something under the top half of her dress!!! To say nothing of something on her head, not least because she was supposed to be going to mass.

Even Anne Boleyn got addressed in this sloppy style, one minute Lady Anne, the next minute Mistress Anne Boleyn. FFS - Lady Anne Rochford!! She's the daughter of an earl at this point.

I could go on. Indeed I feel like sending the people responsible Alianore Audley's Guide to Court Etiquette. But as Hamlet said, my wit's diseased. And anyway, it's only making a mockery of the Tudors, so it's no big deal. If they did this to the Yorks, I'd be round there with my axe sharpened...

4 comments:

Jules Frusher said...

LOL Brian - I know what you mean about the costumes etc. Luckily I'm not too into this period otherwise I would be upset about it too.

I must admit though, I quite enjoy this series - especially Jonathon Rhys Meyers!!! The producers admit that it's more 'Hollywood' than historical - so at least they're not claiming it to be accurate - after all, they did have Cardinal Wolsey committing suicide instead of dying from an illness!

I suppose I manage to watch and enjoy it in the way I enjoy Robin Hood - I just accept that historically it's claptrap and look at the entertainment value (and good-looking actors!) instead.

Maybe it's a girly thing ;-)

Brian Wainwright said...

I'd be the first to admit you cannot have 100% accuracy in historical fiction, and still less in a screenplay, but I do give marks for effort in that direction.

Maybe it is a girly thing, if Mr Rhys Meyers qualifies as eye candy. All I can say is that he in no way resembles Henry VIII at that age. He would need to eat all the pies over a sustained period to get near.

Lynn Irwin Stewart said...

I've just purchased the first season of THE TUDORS (haven't watched it yet). I've read about all the inaccuracies so, when I do watch it, I'll probably spend half of my time looking for them! Still, I'm just going to think of it, as Lady D said about ROBIN HOOD (which I also watch), as "fun" though I have to admit it does trouble me when others, who have zero knowledge of the time period, may think of it as fact.

JJF said...

Kinda know what you mean but as the spiritual sequel to "Rome" it's more or less all you can expect. I have the 4th Season sitting on top of my DVD awaiting a watching after the 2nd season of Dexter (Who knew there were so many untracked serial killers in Miami?). I'm not looking forward to Henry and Brandon's apparent eternal youth, but I feel the need to follow through with it all the same.

I gave up being irritated at the inaccuracy when they conflated Margaret and Mary Tudor in Gabrielle Anwar's character, although I have to admit their first offense was the entirely fictional murder of an entirely fictional uncle in the first minutes of the series should not have encouraged me.

Rambling on about Rome again, in the DVD commentary of one of the final episodes, I think it was James Purefoy the actor for Antony, who said that he'd love to see the BBC/HBO do a remake of "I, Claudius" as a sequel to "Rome", which had me yelling at the screen: "How???, you've precluded the existence of Nero Drusus and Julia Major! Is Antonia Minor going to produce Germanicus and Claudius by asexual division?" (Also, the show implied that Antonia was the offspring of Octavia and Agrippa, which is one accepts the notion that Nero Drusus was the natural son of Augustus makes Caligula's chromosomal damage by inbreeding even more appalling.)

Apropos of nothing, it amazes me that Showtime/HBO never looked at making "The Yorks" 1450-1485 has far more murder, sex and intrigue than big Harry's reign.