Six Wives with Lucy Worsley

[TheHiphopopotamus]

Anyone else watching this? (Apologies if there's already a thread, I half looked and couldn't see one).

I really like Lucy Worsley but do we really need yet another programme about Henry VIII and his wives? There's so much history in this country and yet we seem to return over and over to the Tudors.

Am I being curmudgeonly or is this bringing anything to the table that we didn't already know?

I heart Lucy but I have to say I haven't been inspired to watch this for the exact reason you give. I do think Henry's wives were extremely interesting women and time and again nowhere near enough attention is given to the later ones compared to the earlier ones. But FFS, these aren't even Lucy's favourite queens by her own admission (Queen Caroline is her pick).

Plus Dan Jones and Suzannah Lipscomb did the 6 Wives last year on Channel 5.

So what about some other queens?

• Catherine of Aragon's mum, Isabella
• Queen Anne
• Mary, Queen of Scots
• Mary from William and Mary

Or what about some not-queens?

• Bess of Hardwick
• Margaret Pole
• Joan Beaufort

And if you must do Tudors, why these Tudors? Why is it never Mary I, or Lady Margaret Beaufort, Henry's grandmother? Or Margaret Tudor, Queen of Scots? Very unimaginative.

I did like her but I think she is now terribly over exposed and the productions are often very twee. Does she still have a day job? I thought she was a senior curator.

She still works at Hampton court I think.

I kind of agree but I am an absolute SUCKER for the six wives...however IMHO there hasn't been and will never be as good an Anne Boleyn as Claire Foy in Wolf Hall.

plus it's nice to see Worsley doing different hairdos

Ps: Jacqui McQueen from Hollyoaks playing Anne Boleyn in this one...erm, I will just forever associate that actress with a Croydon Facelift and earrings with hoops so big a lion could jump through them.

I'm baffled this was commissioned. It's a deeply, deeply familiar story, with the usual Lucy Walking and Talking In Hampton Court with her Angela Brazil haircut, and the usual hammy actor reconstructions, just with LW flitting about in a gabled headdress 'spying' on Anne Boleyn.

The bit where she took off in a VW van to Cambridgeshire with a portrait of Katharine of Aragon beside her on the back seat, and then produced sandwiches and a flask on a bench in front of Kimbolton was pretty surreal, though.

I'm really enjoying it and I thought the sad face she gave when listening to Katherine's speech to Henry last week was actually quite touching.

Yes, yes trib agree with everything in your post!

And yes, Claire Foy was excellent as Anne Boleyn, Jacqui McQueen off Hollyoaks was never going to cut it in this, was she? (Natalie Dormer was also fab as AB).

Ah yes! Forgot about Dormer. But I think Foy managed to do minxy to vulnerable more seamlessly though.

One thing I'll say about this series - looking ahead to next week it seems to show the quite speedy transformation from Henry as Dashing King to Henry as Fat Old Pervy Letch with probably boils.

You can see why Katherine Howard got it on with the Tudor Court sexymen poor lamb.

I'm watching this thinking 'Henry and his six wives? Again?!'

I mean yes, it's interesting, but we all know what went down! I do like Lucy though and am sniggering at her appearing in character at various points as a Tudor lady. There's a slight touch of the Sid James about it all.

And tribpot I can't say I'd ever heard of Queen Caroline before but I clicked your link and was reading with interest until I got to the part about her death and then my interest turned to horror. Why didn't they push it back in?

Agree that Claire Foy was fabulous.

Are you all in MN History Club?

DH is enjoying it, I'm sitting grinding my teeth at the inaccuracies (Henry at Jane's bedside passing her Edward... Um, nope)

Awful, isn't it, squoosh? According to Wikipedia she lived for 2 days after her bowel burst

Even Caroline's death is better than those of Henry's wives, esp as we haven't heard about them a gazillion times.

You all sound very clever. I don't know my history and I'm finding this programme absolutely riveting . I loves it

I am quite enjoying it, vw camper and all. And doesn't worsley look young without her red lipstick?

(And much better dressed in the 1500s..)

I am quite enjoying it, vw camper and all. And doesn't worsley look young without her red lipstick?

Yes, I did picture some script meeting where whether Lucy could carry her trademark lip look into the 1530s was being Very Seriously Debated ...

Also, I keep waiting for Henry's bumfluff beard to part company with his face. And having reread Wolf Hall and bring Up the Bodies recently, was absent-mindedly expecting Maria de Salinas to burst into Katharine's deathbed having 'accidentally' fallen off her horse ten inches from the front door while 'just passing'.

I bloody love it.

I'm really enjoying it. Can't wait for next week.

PS For me the only Anne is Genevieve Bujold in 'Anne of the Thousand Days'. Best film ever!

I'm really enjoying it and so is ds (much of it goes over his head)

I doubt the public will ever tire of hearing about Henry

I really like Lucy and how it been done Lucy walking in a time slip

Henry's story fascinates me! I particularly liked the six part documentary David Starkey did, but I really like Lucy too, I find her a bit more energetic and entertaining!

Am enjoying it too. Glad to hear I wasn't the only one who found the camper van journey and sandwiches on a bench a little odd...

I love Lucy and I'm loving this series - the way she explains history (herstory it should be when it is Lucy) is fantastic. I did History A level and it was dull but she is making it all come alive.

I also love her style - she always looks great!

History club:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/history_club

" I do like Lucy though and am sniggering at her appearing in character at various points as a Tudor lady. There's a slight touch of the Sid James about it all."

I'm really enjoying this series and have learnt (or have been reminded of) a lot.

Obviously anyone who went to school in the UK is going to know the story of Henry and his six wives, but a lot of the detail will be missing. I knew that Henry was married to Catherine of Aragon the longest, but I think the pacing of this series so far as really brought it home just how long they were married for. I know very little about his final three wives so am looking forward to learning about them in the next episode.