Wednesday, 26 August 2009

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Don't lose your head

The Tudors knows how to keep us hooked - lots of sex scenes and Jonathan Rhys Meyers

Jonathan Rhys Meyers out of context - a bit like the show, then

When is The Tudors going to swallow the bitter pill of historical accuracy and admit that in his latter years Henry VIII was a fat man with personal hygiene issues?

Never, we hope, so long as we can keep enjoying Jonathan Rhys Meyers. The show might offend purists but not half as much as casting Johnny Vegas would do to my viewing pleasure.

Series three kicked off with the usual rumpy pumpy punctuated with bits of fact you might dimly recall from history lessons.

This week, children, we learned about the Pilgrimage of Grace.

This involved lots of peasants being revolting until Henry mollified them with the Tudor equivalent of family tax credits and the scrappage scheme.

As usual with Henry, this was just a ploy until he could get enough gibbets built and organise a job creation scheme for redundant hangmen. 

It was overlong and dull. I don't know why they bother with history in this show. If the scriptwriters want to show a faithful depiction of Tudor times they could always chuck in more sex.

After all, how else did people pass the long winter evenings in the olden days while they were waiting 400 years for something good to come on the telly?

The Tudors, BBC2 Fridays

Gillian Crawley