The May 2007 episode of TudorCast is up! This marks one year of the podcast. I can’t believe it was actually over a year ago that I thought about doing this, and I really can’t believe that I actually have put together a year of podcasts. Thanks to everyone who has given me feedback over the past year!

Give Showtime your feedback on The Tudors series

After some discussion on the TudorTalk list, it appears that some people got different surveys, possibly depending on how they answered the initial questions.

Or more accurately, another example of a common Tudor history mistake making its way into a newspaper. I don’t necessarily expect a column in a mid-sized American town’s newspaper to get all their English history correct, but it still irks me when they get this particular one wrong:

Henry VIII is not buried in the abbey, but his daughters, Elizabeth I, and the half-sister she ordered beheaded, Mary, Queen of Scots, are.

I even had a history teacher in high school that couldn’t keep Mary “Bloody Mary” Tudor (the half-sister) and Mary Queen of Scots (the beheaded one, a COUSIN) straight, but it still frustrates me how many people mix these two up.

Okay, rant over.

Not at all Tudor related, but I was heartbroken to see the fire on the Cutty Sark this morning. The good news is that about 50% of the ship was away for restoration. The bad news is that right now the fire is being treated as “suspicious”.

I’ve visited the ship twice, although I’ve never actually gone aboard for some silly reason. The picture above goes to the Greenwich set from my 2003 trip, which includes a few photos the ship.

Here’s a link to an article at BBC News

And here is a link to the Cutty Sark Trust.

Update September 2008
From The Times:

The fire that engulfed the Cutty Sark last May, resulting in £10million damage, was caused by a piece of electrical equipment that was left on over the weekend, The Times has learnt.

Full article

It’s still a tragedy that the fire happened at all, but it is nice to know that it wasn’t malicious.

With the flood of news alerts that came through over the past two days, you’d think this was big breaking news. I guess this is really a follow-up to news from back in September about Scarlett Johansson playing Mary Queen of Scots since her attachment to the project isn’t anything new. What apparently is new is that a production company (Relativity Media) has signed on to fund the movie.

There were a ton of articles about this, so I am just randomly choosing the most recent two that came through my news alerts:

From The Herald and from The Independent

Historically accurate or not, it certainly looks like good drama. I’m really looking forward to a modern-day special effects take on the Armada too!

Update: The trailer was taken down (can’t say I’m really surprised).

Update 2: Courtesy of Monique, here’s another link to the trailer. This time you can download a nice quality Quicktime version. Looks great on my computer!

Willard Wigan, an artist who works on the microscopic scale has sold his collection to John Lloyd. Included in the collection is a sculpture of Henry VIII and Wives done in the eye of needle (detail of Henry and two wives above). You can see the full version of the Henry VIII piece and read about other works in This is London and the Times Online.

From UKTV:

Actors and academics are restaging a Tudor play at Hampton Court Palace 500 years after it was first performed.

A Tudor play is being restaged at Hampton Court Palace in London, 477 years after it was performed at the same location for King Henry VIII.

The Play of the Weather by John Heywood was written specifically for the English king and it uses the weather to parallel the varying demands placed on a king by his subjects, the Times reports.

Full article

And another one, from News Blaze

This one isn’t due out until November, but it is available for pre-order. I didn’t see a listing at Amazon.uk, but I’ll add it if/when it shows up. Looking at the other works by Anne Gracie, I’m guessing this is a historical romance based on the series.

Thanks to Kathy for emailing me about it!

For those of you in or visiting the Washington DC area, a new exhibit “Great Britons: Treasures from the National Portrait Gallery, London” opened last week at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery. The exhibition runs though September.

The gallery has an online slide show of a few of the portraits on loan… you’ll see a few familiar faces!