From Broadcastnow.co.uk:
David Starkey is to produce a four-part “psychological profile” of Henry VIII for Channel 4.
The as-yet-untitled series will go beyond the facts of Henry’s six wives and his split with the Catholic church to piece together a sense of his character and motivations.
The first 60-minute episode will show Henry as a highly intelligent child, while subsequent episodes will paint him as a brilliant “A-list celebrity” character with an over-developed ego and “solipsistic sense of self”.
Oh good … “Snarkey” is going to go against the current trend in history scholarship and try to psycho-analyze someone how has been dead for 450 years. That should be amusing.
Amusing is certainly one – very diplomatic – word for it…..
I would like to know when this documentary will be aired and also what it will be called. so I can watch it.
If you go to the article, it says that it will air in April (presumably in the UK, we’ll probably eventually get it in other places). The series doesn’t have a title yet.
I hope we get it in the U.S.! I’d love to see it because I think it would be very interesting to see what he was thinking when he did what he did. All that we have left to us now are his actions and without motives, they are judged too harshly sometimes.
Thanks for the post
Every generation has a historian who likes to take a “new” view on Henry Vlll and how he shaped what is today GB. Starkey is my current favorite. He uses print and film to present his case. My favorite reexamination of Elizabeth’s early life is 1544, the supposed ‘exile’ period. A time that many historians have spun into fanciful tales of not knowing. Starkey frames the explanation so simply, it must be the truth. Simple royal etiquette! One needed permission to write, and approach the King. Even his own daughter did! So simple, it evades us. Research and insight like this makes me look forward to Starkey series. Wives are not all of Henry. It does colour his histories, but he was so much more…
I love to read Starkey’s works. I have a difficult time with his face in the camera, however.
Still, this program will be watched with interest and with the always hopeful anticipation that something totally new will be revealed. So often it has been found that ‘new interpretations’ are just a re-wording of old, generally known information.
April thats another eight months.quite a while to wait.
thanks lara for letting me know.
Sorry. I find Starkey’s work too melodramatic. I’d stick with the old standby for Henry VIII.