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TV REVIEWS
The Tudors, Friday 9pm, BBC2 
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Either the history books at school duped me, or the people behind The Tudors have got it radically wrong: wasn’t Henry VIII a gout-ridden, purple-nosed, ginger-haired barrel of a man? Well, in The Tudors someone’s seen fit to rewrite the randy old goat as a brooding brunette played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers. Oh well, “artistic license” I guess.
Scholars of history will tell you that our Henry’s hair colour isn’t the only liberty taken during this costumed romp through the early reign of the infamous wife-collecting monarch. In fact, the whole thing bears more resemblance to raunchy 1980s oil-drilling glamour soaps like Dallas and Dynasty than a typical costume drama.
Indeed, the first series of the show had history-heads everywhere up in arms. It was also responsible for numerous hilarious bloopers; tarmac driveways, concrete bollards and modern radiators all made an appearance in the first 10-part series, not to mention the King having his inside leg measurements taken with a modern tape measure. Oops.
The acting’s totally over the top, all over-enunciation and bellowing and booming, and we even get veteran luvvie Peter O’Toole cropping up as Pope Paul III. Ultimately, the thing with good old bodice-rippers is that you either love them or hate them, and if you fall into the former category, The Tudors has it all: poisoning plots and priests choking to death on their soup, ludicrous 16th-century ruffled outfits, raunchy soft-porn sex-scenes… it’s all good unclean fun.
by Stewart Turner, Friday 31 July 2008
