Nearly fifty years before The Tudors introduced modern audiences to a sexy, sensationalistic account of Henry VIII's political and romantic escapades (and also alerted us all to just how good Natalie Dormer is at this acting thing), the BBC rolled out a mini-series of six telemovies, each focusing on one of the (unfortunate) brides of this frankly odious man.
Australian actor Keith Michell plays Henry in the series, and by virtue of being front and centre in every episode, carries by far the lion's share of the weight of the performance. Fortunately, he is more than up to the challenge, portraying the petulant and tempestuous monarch with just the right blend of bombast and vulnerability. You're probably not going to like his Henry very much (and nor should you, to my mind), but he gives the role enough dimension that you can see why in his youth he was considered to have great potential as a man and King.
As far as the rest of the production goes, all the leading women (a different one in each film, obviously, since there's a new wife each time) give good performances. There is a very "stage-like" feel to the whole thing thanks in large part to what was obviously a very constrained budget. There are very few scenes set outside, the interior sets see a lot of re-use, and in lieu of crowd scenes there are often sequences that are tightly shot on the leads, with them looking off-screen at the (non-existent) crowd around them.
As you might expect, the tone and pace (and content!) is much more sedate than that of The Tudors, and it is overall significantly less likely to embellish the commonly accepted history of events. The major exception to this is in its depiction of Anne of Cleves, though I must say I rather like the decision to make her a clever, self-assured woman who recognises that marriage to Henry will be miserable and cajoles him into thinking it is his idea that they get an annulment and she goes to live a comfortable life in the English countryside.
If you've an interest in the period and want something a bit more cerebral (and family friendly) than The Tudors, this may well suit your needs.
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