Have you seen 'The Tudors'? Is it really as bad as I think it is? I mean really bad like 'The Borgias'?
Time was when the likes of Keith Michell, Glenda Jackson, Annette Crosbie, Dorothy Tutin, Anne Stallybrass, Elvi Hale, Angela Pleasance, Rosalie Crutchley, Daphne Slater, Robert Hardy, Bernard Hepton, Michael Williams, Margaretta Scott, John Woodvine, James Laurenson, Angela Thorne, Robin Ellis, Peter Egan and all the others had us almost believing that they really came from that period of history, speaking dialogue into which the writers had almost seamlessly placed the authentic utterances as though, like the bi-coloured python rock snake, they always spoke like that.
In this current series the actors speak modern (not timeless or period) dialogue, have modern hair dressing (including several ladies with fringes!), and generally act like people attending a fancy dress party rather than professional actors trying to recreate an authentic period of history. Not that the dialogue they are given is any help: from the, perhaps pedantic, irritant of 'Your Majesty' at a time when 'Your Grace' was still the correct form of address to Henry, via the casual use of first names, to the modern 'calling a summit' the dialogue is dire. Don't misunderstand me: I think 'Shakespeare in Love', for example, with its wittily un-period dialogue is original and brilliant; but there is neither originality nor brilliance in the dialogue of 'The Tudors'.
Nor do the actors appear to have been cast with any consideration taken as to whether they look like the extant portraits of the people they are portraying.
A dark Henry VIII? . . . . . . A slim Wolsey?
![mw03085[1]](http://data1.blog.de/media/472/2040472_ffb917efe8_s.jpg)
![mw06903[1]](http://data1.blog.de/media/474/2040474_18c812e6ae_s.jpg)
No, definitely a ginger. . . . No, he really did eat all the pies.
Did I miss trailers and fanfares while I was on holiday? Or is it hidden away in a late night slot because the BBC is aware of what a turkey it really is?
I think the pose and expressions of the actors in this picture show 'The Tudors' for the soap in fancy dress that it is.
loiswakeman
Lissa - an emphatic NO! The incessantly repeated shouty trailers over the last 2 weeks were enough to reduce me to incoherent rage, so I made extra sure not to watch the real thing. I imagine it like a cross between the Sopranos and the new Robin Hood, with a bit of 'reality' TV thrown in.
So - you did miss the trailers - and a good thing, it would seem.