The Problems with Television History Drama
Why did Showtime, back in 2007, ignite my fascination with Jonathon Rhys Meyers opening lines to the new series The Tudors. That now harrowing line of "You think you know a story, but you only know how it ends. To get to the heart of the story you have to go back to the beginning" makes me think of a story Philippa Gregory ended up telling in 2010, not the cheap, Americanised story Showtime ended up hashing together due to cast unavailability and vanity (Jonathon Rhys Meyers!).
What I mean is the real story of the Tudor dynasty. And how do you get to that story, well you actually start at the beginning with the War of the Roses, or the Cousin's War or if you want an actual start moment for The Tudors you'd have to begin with the death of the Black Prince and the splitting of the Plantagenet line, usually found within Shakespeare's works rather than modern re-telling's of that tumulus time in history. Can you now understand why those words Showtime drawled over television screens hurts so much? If I really wanted to know the start of the story, I wouldn't start with Henry VIII's first divorce. You'd have to start with his childhood or first marriage to get to grips with Henry's issues let alone those of his father and mother. Henry VIII may deserve a series to himself, but why start in the middle of the story.
Showtime could have made a brilliant TV show that would have run for longer time and financially it makes more sense to make one long running show, rather than a 4 series hash-up and a failed series of Arthurian legend (also a little weird); Camalot. A series not even having to struggle through the political mire Shakespeare achieved in The Hollow Crown series (made up of Richard III, Henry IV Part 1 and 2 and Henry V) and Richard IV. A series beginning with a forgotten, backwater marriage in Wales, between Edmund Tudor and Margret Beaufort. That would be the real story of The Tudors.
This is the real problem with television history drama's. They attempt to tell as good History, but end up just telling a fictional story full of blood and sex and forgetting some of the really interesting parts of the story. The Tudors missed the chance to show the blossoming love of Katherine of Aragon and Henry, something only documentaries (and few of them at that) concern themselves with briefly.
Showtime have made the same mistake twice, with The Borgias. Jumping straight into the political mire of a papal election, they ailed to tell the story of an impoverished priest in Spain, who climbed the power ladder. The audience fails to understand the real person of the story.
Historical drama's on TV are always going to cause controversy, be a little historically inaccurate, but hopefully in future, American writers may start telling History rather than just a story.
What I mean is the real story of the Tudor dynasty. And how do you get to that story, well you actually start at the beginning with the War of the Roses, or the Cousin's War or if you want an actual start moment for The Tudors you'd have to begin with the death of the Black Prince and the splitting of the Plantagenet line, usually found within Shakespeare's works rather than modern re-telling's of that tumulus time in history. Can you now understand why those words Showtime drawled over television screens hurts so much? If I really wanted to know the start of the story, I wouldn't start with Henry VIII's first divorce. You'd have to start with his childhood or first marriage to get to grips with Henry's issues let alone those of his father and mother. Henry VIII may deserve a series to himself, but why start in the middle of the story.
Showtime could have made a brilliant TV show that would have run for longer time and financially it makes more sense to make one long running show, rather than a 4 series hash-up and a failed series of Arthurian legend (also a little weird); Camalot. A series not even having to struggle through the political mire Shakespeare achieved in The Hollow Crown series (made up of Richard III, Henry IV Part 1 and 2 and Henry V) and Richard IV. A series beginning with a forgotten, backwater marriage in Wales, between Edmund Tudor and Margret Beaufort. That would be the real story of The Tudors.
This is the real problem with television history drama's. They attempt to tell as good History, but end up just telling a fictional story full of blood and sex and forgetting some of the really interesting parts of the story. The Tudors missed the chance to show the blossoming love of Katherine of Aragon and Henry, something only documentaries (and few of them at that) concern themselves with briefly.
Showtime have made the same mistake twice, with The Borgias. Jumping straight into the political mire of a papal election, they ailed to tell the story of an impoverished priest in Spain, who climbed the power ladder. The audience fails to understand the real person of the story.
Historical drama's on TV are always going to cause controversy, be a little historically inaccurate, but hopefully in future, American writers may start telling History rather than just a story.