I’m only a few days behind on this one! Showtime announced last week that the fourth and final season of The Tudors will premiere in the US on Sunday April 11, 2010.

Showtime has created a video game based on The Tudors series. The trailer is embedded below and you can learn more about the game at this link. There is a flash-based demo on that page, as well as a link to a download demo (it appears to be Windows-only).

Historic Royal Palaces will be broadcasting the installation of General Sir Richard Dannatt as the 159th Constable of the Tower of London. Tune in to the website October 7!

I promise some real blog posts this weekend, but I couldn’t pass this by:

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Season 3 of “The Tudors” is due out on December 7th in the UK and a week later on the 15th in the US. As always, Amazon affiliate store pre-order links below!

For those of you lucky enough to be in the area!

Here’s more information at the Historic Royal Palaces website

Click for a larger version.

And if you have no idea what this is about, go here first, then here, and here is where you can make these yourself. Enjoy!

From The BBC:

The Starstruck exhibition features up to 100 costumes, many of which have been worn by stars in Oscar-winning films and major television series.

The event will raise money for the cathedral, its mission and outreach work, a spokeswoman said.

The three-week exhibition will run until 6 September, but will not be open on Saturday 22 August.

The costumes include those worn by Dame Judi Dench, Dame Helen Mirren and Cate Blanchett for their individual portrayals of Elizabeth I.

Full article

Another article (with more pictures) from Berrow’s Worcester Journal

The official site for Worcester Cathedral and more on the exhibition

I blogged about Philip Sheppard’s soundtrack to Starkey’s “Henry VIII: Mind of a Tyrant” series previously (here and here), and now I’m pleased to announce that it will be released on a new label started by the composer. Check the link for more information.

Thanks to the multiple people who alerted to me to this!

I heard this earlier in the week, but I was waiting for the official press release to come out, which is now has. Richardson has a Tudor acting pedigree… her mother is Vanessa Redgrave, who has portrayed both Anne Boleyn and Mary Queen of Scots.

Press Release:

ACCLAIMED FILM AND TELEVISION ACTRESS JOELY RICHARDSON CAST FOR FINAL SEASON OF SHOWTIME’S “THE TUDORS”

LOS ANGELES, CA (July 22, 2009) Noted film and television actress Joely Richardson has joined the cast of the critically acclaimed drama series, THE TUDORS for its fourth and final season. Richardson will portray Catherine Parr, Henry VIII’s (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) sixth and last wife, in five episodes of the series, which is currently filming in Dublin, Ireland. THE TUDORS is scheduled to premiere on SHOWTIME in 2010.

Best known to American audiences for her celebrated work for five seasons on the popular cable series Nip/Tuck for which she was twice-nominated for Golden Globe Awards — Richardson is part of an English theatrical dynasty that includes her mother, Vanessa Redgrave, father, director Tony Richardson, and aunt Lynn Redgrave and sister, the late Natasha Richardson. Her film credits include The Patriot, I’ll Do Anything, and most recently, in the children’s fantasy film, The Last Mimzy.

Viewers and critics alike have been enthralled watching the storied exploits of the sexy, hard-bodied King Henry VIII as he weds, beds and beheads women and wives across 16th century England. Both Rhys Meyers and the series have been nominated for Golden Globe Awards, and the series has won two Emmys for its incredible costume designs and main title theme music. The new season will chronicle Henry’s dark, final days, his war against France and his final wives (Catherine Howard (played by Tamzin Merchant) and Catherine Parr). The series was nominated for five Emmys this year, including Costumes, Casting and Cinematography.

THE TUDORS is an Ireland-Canada co-production, executive produced by Morgan O’Sullivan for Octagon Films; Benjamin Silverman and Teri Weinberg for Reveille Productions; Eric Fellner and Tim Bevan for Working Title Films, and Sheila Hockin; and is created, written and executive produced by Michael Hirst. SHOWTIME presents the series in association with Peace Arch Entertainment.

(First spotted at The Futon Critic)

Yeah, I know these were announced a few days ago, but I’m just now getting around to posting them.

Congrats to the crew of “The Tudors” for the following Emmy nominations:

* Outstanding Art Direction For A Single-Camera Series
* Outstanding Casting For A Drama Series
* Outstanding Cinematography For A One Hour Series
* Outstanding Costumes For A Series
* Outstanding Hairstyling For A Single-Camera Series

The winners will be announced in September, and the full list of nominees can be seen at Emmys.org

This was posted to my Yahoo group. Loved it!

And I *think* I recognized the website on the computer in the video…

Sorry for the slow posting on this blog for the last week or so. Things have been busy, as you might have guessed!

* The celebrations that I blogged about back in February took place this weekend. Here is an article with some photos and I’ve embedded a You Tube video of the pageant passing Blackfriars Pier:

* Just a reminder that the Royal Mint has some special commemorative coins out this year for the Henry 500 celebrations. I posted about them back in December, but here is the link to the page on the Royal Mint website. (I have several of their less-expensive collectible coins, including the one for Henry, so if you’re in to those kinds of things I’d recommend them.)

* BBC 4 is showing the program Henry VIII: Patron or Plunderer? with Jonathan Foyle about cultural artifacts from the reign of Henry VIII.

* And finally (thanks to Kathy for sending this one in!) The Forme of Cury, a medieval cookbook, has been digitized and put online by the John Rylands Library in Manchester. Here is the BBC article and here is a link to the Rylands Medieval Collection at the library.

Thanks to Stephan for telling me about this!

If you have the Smithsonian Channel, they have an episode of their program “Skyview” called “The Tudor Age” with some stunning aerial imagery. I unfortunately don’t have an HDTV (yet), so I haven’t been able to watch the program (my cable company only has the HD version), but there are some clips on their website. I’ve embedded one below, but you can head over to the page for that episode to see more. A DVD of the show will be available in July.

If you’re a castle junkie like me, be sure to check out some of the other related videos!

Sorry I have been a little quiet on this blog over the last week or so! I’m just going to do a quick round up of a few things that I wanted to post about this week but got behind on.

From the London Evening Standard, an article about one of the winners at the Chelsea Flower show, which grew plants used in a recipe to create perfume for Elizabeth I.

Here’s another article about Henry VIII’s annulment request document that I blogged about previously.

Sent to me through Twitter – News on Alison Weir’s upcoming book launch at the Tower of London for her new bio on Anne Boleyn and details for a tour of Tudor England she’ll be leading in 2010, as well as news on other upcoming books (including a sequel to “The Lady Elizabeth”).

And finally, from Pop Tudors (the blog for the Showtime series “The Tudors”) – Ask a Tudor!. Your chance to ask Mark Hildreth, the actor playing Cardinal Reginald Pole, a question. You can submit them in the comments on the page linked to above.

I’ve been seeing various short articles coming through my news alerts saying that Joss Stone will be back as Anne of Cleves during the 4th season of “The Tudors”. I haven’t seen any information on how many episodes she’ll be in though.

And you could win a £100 gift certificate to the Library bookshop if you’re a good one!

From The British Library Henry VIII exhibition blog:

Move over Charles Laughton! Goodbye Ray Winstone! Better luck next time Sid James!

You, yes you, could win a free ticket to our Henry exhibition by turning up at our Henry VIII lookalikes event on Bank Holiday Monday 4 May.

Click on over for more details

From a press release found via Google news:

The Historic Royal Palaces, the independent charity that cares for Hampton Court Palace and the Tower of London, will send its followers updates on the events in the run-up to Henry VIII’s coronation at Westminster Abbey on June 24 – exactly 500 years after they happened.

It is believed to be the first time the website has been able to engage users in historical events from the first person perspective, and in real time over the actual period they took place, a spokesman for the charity said.

Full article

And here is the Twitter profile page for Henry/HRP

And some of you may have already seen over in the sidebar that I’m on Twitter too, although I’ll warn people now that I mostly post about science, tech and everyday life stuff, not much Tudor history. But if you’re interested – here’s my profile.

Just in case there are folks here who haven’t been over the The Raucous Royals blog lately, I wanted to post something here about Carlyn’s great analysis of this season’s episodes of “The Tudors”.

Here’s a link to the write-up for Episode 3 and the entries for previous episodes can be found at the bottom of that post.

This popped up all at once through various news sources, so I’ll just pick one:

From Broadcasting & Cable:

Jonathan Rhys-Meyers reign as King Henry VIII will end in 2010. Showtime has picked up a fourth and final season of drama The Tudors.

The series will return to the network for its final bow in Spring 2010, with production slated to begin this June in Dublin, Ireland.

Full article