Anne Boleyn

EllanVannin

The most natural black actors and actresses were in the series called Roots. The whole thing deserved an Oscar.
Picking out some black actress just for the heck of it doesn't cut it for me.

Do you mean the 1977 series Roots or the remake in 2016? The original series won numerous awards and was one of the most-watched series ever on American TV. I was so impressed at the time, I later bought it on DVD.

I loved the original Roots. I wonder how it’s stood the test of time.

EllanVannin

The most natural black actors and actresses were in the series called Roots. The whole thing deserved an Oscar.
Picking out some black actress just for the heck of it doesn't cut it for me.

Is it tokenism as opposed to realism?

Roots was a wonderful series.

Madge Shelton was supposed to have been asked to provide a diversion for Henry when he was tiring of Anne; keep it in the family as Lady Shelton, formerly Anne Boleyn, was Thomas Boleyn's sister. She was not pleased at the way her daughter was used as a pawn. Anne Boleyn was of course, the cause of Henry Norris's disgrace and death even though I don't believe anyone believed for a minute they committed adultery.

Callistemon

EllanVannin

The most natural black actors and actresses were in the series called Roots. The whole thing deserved an Oscar.
Picking out some black actress just for the heck of it doesn't cut it for me.

Is it tokenism as opposed to realism?

The cast is multi-racial, so there is no tokenism.

As we thought - Lady Shelton is there on the scaffold. I've watched it all now (a few minutes to go), and it wasn't the best use of three hours I've ever had?.

An absolute travesty.

Wasn't tonight's episode slow? So much drama involved - the trial of the King's favourites, the trial of the Queen herself, the execution of the men, Henry deciding to be "merciful" and get the swordsman from France rather than have her burned. How did they make it so dull and pedestrian?

There still didn't seem to be any new light shone on Anne as a person. Perhaps they should have started at the beginning of her relationship with Henry. They might have come up with some new theories about why she acted as she did.

I would like to see a script that shows them as man and wife, as opposed to king and queen, if that makes sense? Something that concentrated on their relationship, rather than the politics of the thing. Obviously the fact that he was king couldn't be ignored, but it could be less of a focus than their private life - a bit like The Crown did with the Windsors.

I think that that would be very interesting, and I had hoped that this would be what this version would be about. It would definitely give scope for new theories, even though of course that's all they could be, and people would get hung up on 'facts' ?.

Witzend

I can’t help wondering how many people only watched it because of the ‘black Anne’ controversy.

Would those GNers who did watch it, have watched it anyway?
Just interested. (I didn’t watch it.)

I have to agree with you there. I wondered if they decided to cast a black Anne Boleyn to stoke up some interest. After all, there's no such thing as bad publicity. If so, it is a shame for Jodie Turner-Smith. She is a stunning woman and a better actress than this load of codswallop deserved.

Nothing like a bit of controversy to boost viewing figures, totally cynical.

I haven’t seen it yet. DH watched it and wasn’t very impressed. I will watch it out if interest but must admit that over the past couple of days I have been thinking that the whole thing was done just to court publicity. I’ll see what I think when I’ve watched it.

Watching it now. It’s awful.

Why do you think the casting was done for publicity?

I suppose, given some of the comments on this thread, that more people than I’d realised are bothered about skin colour, or can’t follow a story without having replicas of old portraits as the characters,, but I doubt that the producers would be looking at them in their marketing.

I agree that it wasn’t great, but it was clear that it was an attempt to bring the story to a more modern audience- not one that would let the skin colour of the characters put them off it before they’d even seen it.

But it was only the publicity about it that made me watch it as Henry VIII has been done to death. I found everything about it dire, including the acting. Too much blood and gore, too (eg the scene where the horse was killed and the childbirth scene). No chemistry between Anne and Henry, even in the unnecessary sex scenes.

I agree that it was pretty dire, but my point is that nobody knew that before they watched it. It might have been the best thing since Wolf Hall?

Look at the number of people on here who said that they wouldn’t be watching because of her skin colour - no marketing team would have pushed that aspect of it in order to increase viewing figures. Now that I’ve seen it I can see that the multi-racial cast was part of a wider attempt to make the story more representative of modern Britain (in that it was based on a timeless dynamic), but it is clear from posts here that at least amongst the GN demographic it did not increase viewing figures.

You may have watched for that reason, but others gave it as the reason they did not.

I didn’t watch it , not because of the casting, but because the story has been done so many times and I know she gets her head chopped off in the end. I loved Bridgerton - that was really well done and hilariously tongue in cheek.

A horse being killed, why? as there is no historical record of this happening. It may well have done who knows but to portray something so horrid just to add a bit of spice to what is a very sad disastrous time for Anne is ridiculous and of no historical value at all. I'm glad I didn't watch it as that incident would have been a complete NO NO.

The killing of the horse was to support the idea that Henry's character changed after his accident at the joust.

There's no historical record of many things, but still we see them in dramas.

The birth scene didn’t need to be so loopy and graphic though did it?

Why not? Giving birth wasn't exactly pleasant in the 16th Century.

It was gratuitis imo. Did you think it was a good adaptation/ interpretation?

No, I thought it was awful

But that was due to the script and direction, IMO.

So what does showing the cutting of a horses throat add to the downfall of Anne except to revolt the viewer? Likewise graphic details of childbirth? The machinations of the Tudor Court are what is relevant in Anne's story, not mindless cruelty.

I don't get revolted by graphic details in dramas. Well, sometimes, but not in the Anne Boleyn series. There's bits of Silence of the Lambs I haven't seen yet because my eyes have been closed.

It was shocking that the horse got killed, but it spoke to the change in Henry's character. I took it as meaning that he blamed the horse; later on he was going to blame Anne for something she had no control over either. It might not be Shakespeare, but it wasn't gratuitous either, IMO.