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Telly addicts

Damian Lewis fans line up for Wolf Hall tonight

990 replies

Travelledtheworld · 21/01/2015 11:29

Wednesday 21st January BBC2 Channel 4

lush costumes.

www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/11358197/Damian-Lewiss-inspiration-for-Wolf-Halls-Henry-VIII-Wills-and-Harry.html

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Tiredemma · 01/02/2015 08:31

I think Anne's life would have turned out very differently if Elizabeth had been a boy. One of the great what might have been moments in history

agree with this- also find it ironic that Elizabeth I actually became one of the greatest monarchs in our history- certainly as 'strong' as any King before her.

LaQueenOf2015 · 01/02/2015 09:48

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YonicScrewdriver · 01/02/2015 10:05

Why wouldn't Henry be bright? He came from pretty shrewd stock and had good tutors.

Whoever Henry married, he would've had to break fromRome. Another mistress wouldn't have solved the succession.

Fiderer · 01/02/2015 11:14

Re TC's appearance, I haven't read HM and my impression of TC was that he was shrewd, a skilled manipulator and highly intelligent. Didn't give his physical appearance any thought.

So MR seems perfectly fine to me as TC physically, I especially like his facial stillness and how you know that brain is whirring away inside.

With DL I must admit I have to get over my "Brody!" when he's first on screen but that'll pass, I hope. It would have ruined it for me if the whole series were about HVIII but as it's TC, it doesn't.

KatieScarlettreregged · 01/02/2015 11:20

He had me at 'Scaramella...'
(sigh)
DL is excellent, loved how he gives H8 a touch of madness in the dream scenario. All that certainty but with a little teeny drip of psychotic.
Lovely, can't wait for Weds episode.

MuddhaOfSuburbia · 01/02/2015 11:54

watching League of Gentlemen last night for the 48th time on a hunch (and having read Mantel's Giving Up The Ghost years ago) I did a quick google and found that HM grew up in the mill town filmed as Royston Vasey

fancy that, fact fans!

KatieScarlettreregged · 01/02/2015 12:25

Where was Royston Vaisie?

LaQueenOf2015 · 01/02/2015 13:00

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Fiderer · 01/02/2015 13:08

Why did Henry call for TC when he had the dream? At that point he wasn't even a trusted aide. Was it because he had a sense that TC would be honest and not just give whatever sycophantic explanation others would?

KatieScarlettreregged · 01/02/2015 14:24

Yes, H8 liked plain speaking when it agreed with him
Ever since I read Margaret George I have imagined Henry with issues...
Would love to read more books that attempt to explain his choices.
Yes, I believe it was all about the legit male heir too. Though he wasn't averse to the financial benefits of the reformation. I don't think he loved any of his wives other than in a reflection of himself as gentle knight. He could do courtship and love of fair lady but once married, the second they thwarted or disappointed him, he was halfway out the door.

AlpacaLypse · 01/02/2015 14:35

All the Tudors were academically very bright. Several of them scored big fat zeros on common sense though!

YonicScrewdriver · 01/02/2015 14:45

I actually think Edward IV had a point marrying Elizabeth Woodville - a widow who had a history of bearing sons!

MuddhaOfSuburbia · 01/02/2015 15:28

katiescarlett Royston Vasey is a fictional creepy mill town in comedy series League of Gentlemen

they filmed it in the creepy mill town of Hadfield, Derbyshire, where Hilary Mantel grew up. No wonder she has a feel for the Other in her work

(sorry anyone from Hadfield. I'm sure it's a lovely place to grow up these days)

FrankelandFilly · 01/02/2015 15:32

DH is a big League of Gentleman fan, he tells me they chose the name Royston Vasey as its actually the real name of "comedian" (and I use that in the loosest possible terms) Roy Chubby Brown.

Of course he could be winding me up Grin

KatieScarlettreregged · 01/02/2015 15:36

I loved LOG and Royston Vaisie is a term much used in the Scarlett house to describe a certain small village around here where DH works...
(Off to google Hadfield to see if it bears any resemblance to it)

ExitPursuedByABear · 01/02/2015 15:44

Your DH speaks the truth.

KatieScarlettreregged · 01/02/2015 15:47

Hadfield is palatial compared to DH workplace, now I need to break that bombshell to him Wink

LaQueenOf2015 · 01/02/2015 16:02

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LaQueenOf2015 · 01/02/2015 16:06

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Marlinspike · 01/02/2015 16:43

Very excited by the mentions of (ahem) Marlinspike the cat in the last episode. Wanted to call our kitten Marlinspike, but was overruled by philistine family, so opted for it as my MN username instead.

As you were!

flippinada · 01/02/2015 16:49

I've read that MH book, many years back. Henry comes across really badly - spoily, horrible and childish (I don't know if that was intentional) IIRC Katherine Howard is portrayed as a witch. She also wrote an autobiography of Mary QoS along similar lines which I much preferred.

Has anyone seen the trailer for episode 3? Can't wait!

flippinada · 01/02/2015 16:49

*spoilt, not spoily

LaQueenOf2015 · 01/02/2015 16:53

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Twinklestein · 01/02/2015 18:00

LaQueenOf2015

I'm well aware of Henry's education which was standard for a monarch of the time. But as an intellect he was mediocre. His love life and remorseless headcount is a testament to that. He liked the idea of knowledge rather than being genuinely intellectual.

The 'defender of the faith' title, which Henry had long coveted, was given by Giovanni de' Medici, the notoriously corrupt Pope Leo X*, as a reward for Henry's loyalty in writing a treatise responding to Luther's attack on the seven sacraments. It's not known how much of it was written by Henry himself, and he likely had help from More and Wolsey. The treatise was written as much for political as religious or scholarly reasons, and its affirmation of the supremacy of the Pope and the indissolubility of marriage, Henry soon contradicted. The title was rescinded by Pope Paul III when Henry he broke with Rome. (Later reinstated by Parliament).

Henry's great passions in life were food, women, hunting and reconquering France. As a personality he was greedy, hedonistic, arrogant, ostentatious, immature, lachrymose, prone to tantrums and a bully. As a king he ruled through fear, suspicion and a certain kind of laziness. Wolsey ran the country for the early part of his reign, and Henry rarely bothered turning up to meetings of his council of advisers, procrastinated about major policy decisions, and disliked reading or writing long documents.

His foreign policy was a failure. He raised huge sums of money through Parliament, the sale of the monasteries, and devaluation of currency, to fund his obsession with fighting France and Scotland which achieved little but pushing the Scots into the arms of the French. The debasing of gold and silver currency with copper set off an inflationary spiral which did not end until Elizabeth I.

The constitutional & religious reform for which his reign is renown were the work of Cromwell, Cranmer & Wolsey.

The upshot of the religious policies of his reign, which were on his part largely a result of his desire to marry Anne Boleyn, desire for power and the need for cash rather than any intellectual or religious conviction, resulted in the destruction of beautiful buildings, works of art, and damage to libraries.

His rating as a ruler among historians is quite low, but he has always appealed to the public imagination which has given him credit for achievements that were the work of his advisors.

So, while he undoubtedly had a certain level of education, I do not regard him as an intelligent man.

*Leo was a great deal more interested in power, money and art than he was in religion. He was extravagant, luxurious, nepotistic, a prolific seller of offices and indulgences, and an indirect cause of the Reformation.

flippinada · 01/02/2015 18:10

I haven't read the Helen of Troy - another one to add to my ever - growing list of books I need to read.

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