Anne Boleyn - Mini TV Series Review

Divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived. We all know the rhyme and throughout cinematic history the lives of Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard and Catherine Parr have been brought to life on screen. Anne Boleyn has previously been played by Natalie Portman, Natalie Dormer and Claire Foy - Jodie Turner-Smith however, is the first black actress to take on this role.

Channel 5's three-part drama Anne Boleyn focuses on the final months of her life as she struggles to secure a future for her daughter Elizabeth and to challenge the powerful patriarchy closing in around her.

I was immensely looking forward to this production, especially with the colour-blind casting and that is a casting technique we need more of in period dramas. There have been criticisms of "historical inaccuracies" due to the casting of POC actors in the main roles and this argument is something I truly take issue with.

For years, non-white characters have been played by white actors and historical dramas in particular have a history of white-washing their cast, regardless of what the story is about. This argument against colour-blind casting was brought up two years ago when David Oyelowo was cast as Inspector Javert in the BBC mini-series Les Misérables - even though historically this was actually very appropriate casting when you think of Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, a man of African descent (in Dumas's case, with a white father and black mother) known for leading European troops as a general officer during the late 1700s and early 1800s. He was the first person of colour in the French military to become brigadier general, divisional general, and general-in-chief of a French army.

My point being, we are living in a time where casting should be more diverse and excluding that is actually perpetuating a very narrow-minded narrative view of the world we live in. If you limit your casting pool to a particular look for "accuracy", you are actually excluding many talented actors who could bring this character to life through emotional and strong performances. Film and television needs to catch-up with the open-mindedness of theatre, where actors are cast for their acting ability without considering the actor's ethnicity, skin colour, body shape, disability, sex and/or gender. Therefore, I applaud this show's casting choices.

Turner-Smith was excellent in the titular role, she had a quiet composure which suited perfectly for this incarnation of Anne and was also bold when her character was pushed to her limits, resulting in fiery and passionate rages. Mark Stanley as the notorious wife-swapping King Henry was not as compelling, especially in the earlier episodes - there were times where I felt he played it rather safe with his character and I wanted to see him pushing the boundaries a bit more.

Other standouts for me were Paapa Essiedu, Thalissa Teixeira and Amanda Burton in their respective roles. This production had a pretty strong ensemble cast that did good with the material they were given. However, the production quality was visible throughout this series. It is pretty common knowledge that the BBC and ITV produce highly expensive period productions and Channel 5 did a decent job with what they had to work with, but for this to work - they needed to have a better budget.

Anne Boleyn was filmed across Yorkshire, especially at Bolton Castle in Wensleydale, as Greenwich Palace and the Tower of London. Other locations include: Oakwell Hall, as Henry’s privy gallery and bedchamber and Hatfield House gardens; St Michael’s Church Emley, as the King's Hall and the Tower; Fountains Hall, the exterior of Greenwich Palace; East Riddlesden Hall, Greenwich Palace gardens and stables; Ripley Castle, as Greenwich Palace riverbank and bridleway; Markenfield Hall, as London streets and Seymour’s residence; Castle Howard, also Greenwich Palace riverbank and gardens, and Harewood House, as a bridleway.

There were some moments that were distracting where I could see Anne was meant to be in one place, but following her through the rooms it was clearly three different buildings and I feel the transition needed to be smoother or the sets more consistent.

Also, I weren't too keen on screenwriter Eve Hedderwick Turner's structure of this narrative, but her writing was good story and character wise. As it spans across the last five months of Anne's life, the events before and after are reduced to on screen text and honestly, I would have loved to have seen how Anne and Henry's relationship began, the fate of Catherine of Aragon or even how Anne's demise effected her daughter Elizabeth's future. There was so much to explore, but I feel we had very little time to do so - if the writer had been given eight or even six episodes, those narrative plot points could have been more effectively written.

This series overall felt rather rushed and there were moments that I felt were added and then completely ignored - Anne's confidence in her sexuality, even kissing Jane Seymour and being quite dominant in her intimate relationship with Henry - but why? We needed to have a chance to see how Anne built up this power and confidence, but we only really saw her as Queen Anne and I feel we needed that character arc on screen.

The final episode did impact my overall rating of this show, which was definitely the strongest out of the three. So I would rate this ★★★ - but Anne Boleyn's story is something that cannot be told in just three episodes.

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