Anyone watching Anne Boleyn

[mumsiedarlingrevolta]

Think jodie Turner Smith brilliant.

Really enjoying it

It was absolutely crap. In all honesty it was possibly the worst program I've ever seen focusing on this period of history, which is bloody impressive as it feels like there have been hundreds of them over the years.

I sincerely hope its not the nail in poor Jodies acting career because she is such a good actress but this script has done her no favours.

It’s the setting and emptiness that does it for me , awful looking plywood throne and panels, even the extremely fictional Tudors had better looking filming locations,

And yes Jodie Turner is great but I honestly don’t think casting a black actress for a historical nonblack character is a good idea simply because it’s not very accurate!
I Natalie Portman was the worst Anne Boleyn ever,
The best are Natalie Dormer and Geneveive Bujold.

Agree it seems to have a low budget, maybe as channel 5?
I quite liked it and will watch tonight. But agree it is no wolf hall.

I’m not mad on Henry tbh. He’s the guy from game of thrones I think?

I love this time period, early modern is it? And wish they’d make something on the scale of La Reine Margot, it’s simply the best adaptation of that turbulent time. France , Spain , Britain , Portugal ,were all connected through Marriages and I’ve yet to see a worthy adaptation. Most make it look agreeable, while history shows it was nothing like that!
There are also some interesting claims of Moorish ancestry in the house of Plantagenet , through Isabella of Castile, wonder why no one tried to make any shows about, that and Queen Charlotte ancestry , these are far more interesting instead of making things up like a dark AB ,

I haven't watched this yet. However, the ONLY Cromwell for me was Donald Pleasence, in the 1975 film "The Six Wives of Henry VIII" - slimy and snivelling.

Keith Michell was also a spot-on Henry, he was fantastic.

Correction: it was "Henry VIII And His Six Wives" 😬

Agree re: Donald Pleasance. Mark Rylance is an excellent actor, but I thought he was mis-cast as the heavy, lurking, murderous Cromwell in "Wolf Hall".

Wasn't so keen on Keith Michell as Henry, though, but I think that that was because they aged him badly - theatrical prosthetics weren't as convincing then.

Completely agree about Keith Michell's makeup!

My godfather went to see an exhibition of the costumes from the film, they used things like tap washers to create some of the detail.

Not as controversial as I thought it would be .Jodie is a good actress and made a believable job of it .
Sadly I feel like the controversy was stirred up around this to try and make it more interesting. It was boring and tired.

@SchadenfreudePersonified Your BBC article that you linked :

Those 'critics' and SM were mostly who I was referring to, rather than MN posters.

Funny how they suddenly don't understand metaphors. I believe the casting of AB in the first place was to demonstrate how hard sexism was at the time and how oppressed women were, especially AB as a strong independent woman in power would have been jarring.

The 'child' Jane S, is portrayed by a 26yr old actress who is small to portray the mousy, naive, submissive persona she wanted to portray - even though she did have an affair with a married king, and does admit she would marry for security.

The animal cruelty was a metaphor for AB being loved and loyal one minute, but callously executed when Henry feels betrayed for one second.

The raunchy scenes, everyone was fully dressed !
A slightly lingering closed mouth lesbian kiss.
I remember a scene on The Tudors when AB sister was with another woman, both naked and she was pinching the ow nipple.

The dresses are the typical curtain like get up you see in Tudor related museums. This was not the golden age just yet, and so far there has been no special occasions.

The scenes are tight shots of AB and Henry - not many - when she sees him in his room and dinner. No panning of the room, I think deliberately so you cannot see who is here and who is not.
The rooms deliberately small to show how claustrophobic it may have felt at the time.
You have to bear in mind all of this was shot during Covid, so I don't think a big scale would have been possible.

The last scene portrays AB vulnerability while explaining her bravado. She cries over the miscarriage, then forces herself into the dress, rightly lamenting she is being left behind and pathetically runs after Henry who ignores her.

You have to bear in mind, the story starts when she and Henry celebrate during Catherine's death. It's her last 5 months, no boy heir in sight, Henry having an affair. I cannot believe things would have been that pleasant. Not too sure what was so inaccurate historically.

I thought Jodie was really good, but I don't know her movies, and did not like her character in a movie on Amazon prime recently.

It was rubbish. It would have had to be really good to add anything to previous retellings of Anne and her life

This was awful. I've never seen the actor who played her in anything else so I can't gush over how wonderful she is usually

This was stilted, cheap and boring.

And to the pp who insinuated race was a reason to find fault. ODFOD

Tbf The Tudors was also shite.

@SchadenfreudePersonified

It's awful - historically inaccurate (and not just because Anne is black), dreadful dialogue, and worst of all, boring. I'll watch to see if it kicks up, but if it doesn't I won't watch any more. Life is too short for bad telly.

Agree!

I care not for metaphors which show animal cruelty.

Decent acting and decent scripts do not require metaphors.

I gave no hoots when she chased after Henry. I just didn’t care.

It’s almost as shite as the masked dancer.

Same end punchline too.

I will watch it in the hope it gets better and because I love the period.

And aye. The Tudors was a bit glitzy and glammed and not entirely accurate but it was most certainly not this shite.

Metaphors or not - it was awful.

I agree that The Tudors (historically speaking) was rubbish -but it was entertaining rubbish.

I'm not keen on this. I have a soft spot for Anne Boleyn and using a fab black actress just seems so wrong to me. Plus she wasn't that unpleasant.

And yes it is Covid times.

I appreciate that that in itself poses its own problems.

Like Fonzie jumping the shark though, you don’t churn out shite just because you can.

She may be a fabulous actress (nothing to compare this to) but she doesn’t appear to be on this.

She isn’t making me feel anything.

Apart from irritation.

I like it. Ann Boleyn comes over as powerful which wouldn't have been the case but it doesn't bother me, I've seen the more traditional Boleyn films & I like it when it's different & entertaining. She comes over as arrogant & scared, & I think this is believable, in fact I suspect that was part of her downfall.

I'm on the 2nd episode, and failing miserably to enjoy it.

Jodie TS is single handedly carrying this turgid pile of crap on her own.

Henry was charasmatic, bold, fearless, arrogant, cruel, was constantly surrounded by people. Not some mouse that sat in the corner. It's like someone wrote the script without actually reading any history.............

It's like someone wrote the script without actually reading any history.

Aye.

That.

And she is having to carry it on her own. They didn’t seem to bother with a decent script because they took the option of creating a fuss about casting for creating interest in the series.

If that was me, I’d find that insulting.

And not summat I’d want on my cv.

I enjoyed ep 2 more but agree script is not great. Poor old Anne, she really was v unfairly treated but then she treated Katherine poorly and did not have the foresight to think in a couple of years that will be me.
Overall it’s fine but average, the actress playing Anne is good, but Henry is poor.

It's like someone wrote the script without actually reading any history.

This hits the nail on the head perfectly. With all the hype about the casting I would be mortified if I were Jodie, imagine this being the show you were remembered for.

@BeautyGoesToBenidorm

Completely agree about Keith Michell's makeup!

My godfather went to see an exhibition of the costumes from the film, they used things like tap washers to create some of the detail.

I went to see the Wolf Hall costume exhibition. Claire Foy must have been a skinny minnie.

Claire Foy was a brilliant Anne - as was Natalie Dormer. They just had the right amount of unlikeable to them.

I actually feel really sorry for JTS. What a steaming pile of shite to be involved with........ and what on earth was Amanda Burton thinking too