#MeTudor: how Anne Boleyn’s life foreshadowed our modern political battles
A new Channel 5 drama proves that interest in the life of the doomed Tudor queen is evergreen – and for understandable reasons
24 May 2021 • 5:00am
Jodie Taylor-Smith (c) as Anne Boleyn in Channel 5 s new drama about the doomed Tudor queen
Credit: Parisa Taghizadeh/ViacomCBS
Last week marked the 485th anniversary of Anne Boleyn’s death, but she is not forgotten. Far from it. Her story has been told many times, ever since an ageing William Shakespeare co-wrote Henry VIII, about Henry’s struggle to divorce Catherine of Aragon and wed Anne instead. For five centuries, Anne’s life has been picked apart by storytellers, all keen to discover what her life says about us. Indeed, every generation finds its own Anne Boleyn.
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Talking about the new show stills and the anniversary of Anne Boleyn s death, Jodie said: There s so much about Anne’s legend that people believe – whether it s that she was a witch, she had six fingers, or that she had an incestuous relationship with her brother – we ve seen all these things portrayed in popular culture. I think that for the most part we ve seen (Anne’s) story told through the lens of the other people around her.
Historic: Henry VIII s second wife Anne Boleyn was famously beheaded on 19 May in 1536 for high treason after failing to produce a male heir (Jodie pictured as Anne, right, in still)
Channel 5 has released the first trailer for its upcoming miniseries, Anne Boleyn. The trailer gives a look at the period drama inspired by the historical figure who is trying to bear a son as an heir to the throne. While it is unclear what parts of her story will be told, we do see…
Jodie Turner-Smith has revealed she feels Meghan Markle could have modernised the royal family and said the monarchy is limiting and archaic .
The British actress, 34, who is the first black woman to take on the role of Anne Boleyn in the new Channel 5 series, said she is not a monarchist in a new interview.
Speaking about Meghan in an interview published in The Telegraph, Jodie said: It was a terrible missed opportunity, the way in which it was not allowed to be something that really modernises that institution, and to change it to something for the better. I think that’s why there’s dysfunction there.
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It then shows her in childbirth, desperately asking if her child was a boy before she is seen arguing with King Henry VIII (Mark Stanley) yelling: You promised me sons.
Another character is heard asking Anne if her husband no longer visits her chamber, and King Henry is seen giving Jane Seymour (Lola Petticrew) an affectionate look as he and Anne attend a party.
Doomed: The trailer opens with Thomas Cromwell (Barry Ward) informing Anne she is being charged with treason, to which she immediately pleads not guilty
Events: It also shows her in childbirth, desperately asking if her child was a boy , Anne famously gave birth to Elizabeth who went on to be the Queen of England