Many of you will know James Peacock from the Anne Boleyn Society Facebook page and he’s joined the MadeGlobal Anne Boleyn Day 2016 to talk about Anne Boleyn’s portrayal in the media.
Head on over to https://www.madeglobal.com/3238/james-peacock-anne-boleyns-portrayal-media/ to enter the giveaway for an Anne Boleyn magnet set – good luck!
The most memorable and convincing portrayal of Anne I’ve ever seen was in the movie “Anne of the Thousand Days” — Genevieve Bujold gave a stunning performance. I first saw it in the movies when I was 12, and saw it many times since then.
I also thought that Dorothy Tutin in the BBC’s Six Wives of Henry did an outstanding job.
She seemingly captured Anne for me in the years 1533 – 1536.
While I thought the film ‘Anne of the Thousand Days’ was beautifully filmed, the outrageous inventions really bothered me. It’s pretty much a historical fact that the last Anne Boleyn saw of Henry was at the May Day tournament in Greenwich. He never came to see her in the Tower after her trial and she never made that speech that Bujold did so well. The film also, unbelievably, portrayed Henry at Anne’s trial and even had Mark Smeaton brought in to admit that his confession to adultery with Anne had been a lie under torture. PLEASE!!! That was just too much. Then Princess Mary was NEVER present at her mother Catherine’s deathbed, another inaccuracy. I think the excellent presentation of the BBC’s ‘The Six Wives of Henry VIII’ with the incomparable Keith Michell and Dorothy Tutin as Anne Boleyn was the best I’ve ever seen on the subject.
When are people going to realize that directors and producers of films and historical drama or television series are not making historical documentaries, they are making drama, they are changing things for dramatic effect, to play to the audience, to make the film interesting, accuracy is not always top of their list, entertainment is. The Tudors was inaccurate, but it was one of the best portrayals of Anne Boleyn there has been. It was also hugely entertaining.
I have to confess to being guilty of being introduced to Tudor history by the Showtime series. However, it did lead me on a journey to find the real history of the Tudors and I am also exploring the Plantagenets. I find the real story more amazing than all the fiction written or filmed. It’s all there, sex, love, betrayal, family, death, murder, power, politics, religion and on and on.
I try not to sneer at the made up fantasy being written..at least now I can tell the difference.