31 March 2009

Historian calls BBC period drama "gratuitously awful"

Dr David Starkey, a British specialist in the Tudor period, described the BBC series "The Tudors" as being riddled with errors and inaccuracies.

Characters wear costumes from the Elizabethan era and travel in Victorian carriages, suggesting that the modes of transport in the series were bought "lock, stock and barrel" from a "Jane Austen leftover"...

"It is gratuitously awful," he told The Daily Telegraph. "There are errors in Shakespeare when he handles history but they are there for a purpose. The mistakes in The Tudors are completely gratuitous."

He said he was shocked that the programme makers twisted history to show Henry VIII's sister, Margaret, being sent away to marry the King of Portugal instead of the King of Scotland.

"There's only one reason for that: so that she can have a bonkorama in a supposed ship's cabin with the hunk who plays the Duke of Suffolk,"...

He added: "The series was made with the original intention of dumbing it down so that even an audience in Omaha [in Nebraska] could understand it.
The audience in Omaha will not be pleased...

??bonkorama?? (yes, I can guess what it means; it's just an interesting neologism)

1 comment:

  1. Don't forget that in the BBC's version of Robin Hood, Friar Tuck is black. I kid you not. Never let historical accuracy get in the way of political correctness or making a programme look pretty. Wtf do I bother paying my license fee for?!

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