If there’s one thing the BBC just cannot do, it’s making trailers for their tv shows that do not fill you with a brightly burning hatred for the show in question after the second time you’ve seen the trailer. Doesn’t matter whether the programme itself is good or not, because the trailers are so annoying and they’re shown so often (even thirty seconds before the show in question comes on) that you cannot help but loathe it. And when the trailers are promoting something that is going to be awful, the trailers are even worse. Such was the case for The Tudors, BBC2’s latest mock-historical costumes ‘n sex drama. You knew it was going to be bad because the trailer showed all sort of dark! dramatic! scenery chewing, interspersed with pseudoporn, and the lead actor did that stupid “talking normally THEN SHOUTING bit” that bad tv actors thinks shows tension, but instead just makes them look like a berk.
We’ve watched the series a bit since it came on because we always catch it switching from Have I got News for You on BBC1 to Q.I. on BBC2, because we keep forgetting there’s half an hour inbetween them. While watching it, S— remarked that it seemed made for the American market because a) dumbed down, b) overdramatic and c) lots of filler that could be cut for commercials. Well, surprise surprise, it turned out she was right, Daily Mail tells us. This being the Mail, there’s plenty of sexy photos of it inbetween telling us how sexed up and awful it is:
Modern radiators, Tarmac driveways, concrete bollards and Victorian carriages have all made appearances in the tenpart series set in the 16th century.
Made by Showtime, a U.S. production company, The Tudors appeared on American screens before being bought by BBC2. Henry VIII is played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers of Bend It Like Beckham fame.
Last night, Leanda de Lisle, a Tudor biographer, said: “Overall the series is badly written with an extremely cheap feel to it.
“It is hugely disappointing. With inaccuracies in almost every sentence, the BBC is dumbing down the Tudor period.”
She said the anachronisms would be acceptable only if the drama “rang true” – and this hadn’t been the case.
She added: “The characters talk in completely unnatural ways, addressing their own family members as “Anne Boleyn” or “Mary Boleyn” so that we, the stupid audience, understand who they’re supposed to be.
“Henry VIII was exceedingly powerful, both politically and physically, but Rhys Meyers is pretty, rather than macho and thus completely unconvincing.”
The Tudors is only the worst recent example of the BBC’s recent tendency to sex up and dumb down its historical dramas, either to attract more viewers or to be able to sell it on to the American market. Any educative values still presents in these shows is watered down to homeopathic levels in the process, losing much of the justification for them. These series are supposed to teach some history in an enjoyable manner, but unless you’ve got a fetish for “medieval” costume cosplay, you’ll neither enjoy The Tudors nor learn anything from it.