television reviews
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… “Primary School Challenge”? According to one of the Cambridge teams on January 9th, Edward IV and Edward V had the same mother. According to Jeremy Paxman, Margaret “Beaufort” was married to the Duke of Burgundy. To be fair, she did marry four times, even though the first was annulled. Oh dear. Weshall have to…
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While browsing for a particular portrait, I came upon the picture above. It’s Anton Lesser as Thomas More, from the TV production of ‘Wolf Hall’, but in this particular shot he is a dead ringer for Henry VII. Before I read further, I actually did think it was a portrayal of Henry. It doesn’t make…
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Josephine Tey’s novel Brat Farrar is widely perceived as having been based on the Victorian Tichborne case where a well-upholstered Australia-based butcher’s son posed as the missing claimant to a baronetcy. Arthur Orton/ Castro persuaded Roger Tichborne’s mother that he was the heir to the title, but very few others and lost his court cases.…
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Time Commanders, the television programme that replayed old battles from a studio and saw a Norman army lose at Hastings – oh yes – is back after eleven years. There will only be three episodes and Richard Hammond has given way to the somewhat louder Gregg Wallace but it will be on BBC4 tonight at…
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This article lists a few errors in two current popular drama series but its criticisms are not as authoritative as they may seem. On “Victoria”, it quotes Professor Jane Ridley, who is a leading expert on that monarch and is a descendant of one of England’s first married bishops, and A.N. Wilson on several points. However,…
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“Henry VIII and his six wives” – Channel Five
“Tudors”, Anne Boleyn, Anne of Cleves, Arthur “Tudor”, Catherine of Aragon, Catherine Parr, Channel Five, Channel Four, Dan Jones, David Starkey, executions, Francis Dereham, Henry VIII, Jane Seymour, John Ashdown-Hill, Katherine Howard, pre-contract, Royal Marriage Secrets, Stephen Gardiner, Suzannah Lipscomb, television programmes, Thomas Cromwell, Thomas WolseyThis has been presented by two of Five’s favourite history presenters: Dan Jones and Suzannah Lipscomb. Perhaps the title isn’t the best of starts, as Ashdown-Hill (Royal Marriage Secrets, ch.10, pp.95-113) has shown that Henry may have contracted as few as two valid marriages, the third and sixth ceremonies. Jones begins every episode by reciting…
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Janet Wertman writes here about Emma Stanhope’s marriage to Edward Seymour, the Lord Protector to Edward VI. Seymour was ousted and executed in January 1552 alongside Emma’s brother, Sir Michael Stanhope. As shown in the last series of “Who do you think you are?”, Sir Michael was the ancestor of the BBC Security Correspondent Frank…
The New Murrey and Blue blog 