June 2, 2021 at 4:29 pm
Sordid affairs, political backstabbing and brutal murders – there’s a reason the Tudors have occupied our collective conscious for centuries. A new offering from Channel 5 starring Jodie Turner-Smith as Anne Boleyn is the latest addition to the plethora of dramas about one of history’s most dramatic families – and it began last night.
Advertisement
The three-part drama, titled
Anne Boleyn and produced by historian Dan Jones, takes us through pivotal moments in the Tudor queen’s life, from the stillbirth of her son to her death by execution on 19 May 1536. The Tudor world is, as it might be expected, portrayed as a dark and difficult place to be a woman, with the plot following the final months of Anne’s marriage to Henry VIII as she struggles to conceive a male heir.
Nope, you haven’t misread that. Channel 5 have got an actually good period drama on their hands with Anne Boleyn.
It feels bizarre for a channel renowned for Dogs Behaving Very Badly and Filthy Britain SOS to have somehow bagged a big budget Tudor drama starring one of the best new actors of her generation as the titular queen of England, but these are bizarre times we live in. And who are we to question how or why?
Anne Boleyn is 5’s new three parter, that spans the final five months of Henry VIII’s second wife’s life before she’s beheaded for treason. The show seeks to explore Anne’s life through a feminist lens as she struggles to deal with the constraints of the Tudor society she lives in whilst facing mounting pressure to conceive a male heir. The episodes are running consecutively across three nights, with the first one airing at 9pm last night, continuing same time tonight and finishing up tomorrow.
Tuesday, 1st June 2021 at 6:03 pm
Channel 5 upcoming psychological thriller Anne Boleyn stars Jodie Turner-Smith as Henry VIII’s ill-fated second wife Anne Boleyn, now considered to be one of the most influential queen consorts in history.
Advertisement
The producers used identity-conscious casting for the series, similar to how theatre productions have long approached casting historical plays.
Mark Stanley, who plays Henry VIII in the Anne Boleyn cast, told
RadioTimes.com, “Jodie has a lot in common with Anne Boleyn. She’s a strong, opinionated, scarily intelligent person. She was also bringing up a young child at the time that we were on set, and she’s quite awe-inspiring really. If you put that all in a box, actually, it’s very similar indeed.