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Category: Entertainment

More quick notes

First up, it looks like Showtime will be re-playing the first season of “The Tudors” in January [schedule], possibly as a lead-up to season two. Since the first season started at the first of April last year, I’m guessing the second season will run about the same time. Also, there have been stories floating across my news alerts that CBS is considering running edited versions of Showtime shows on the network, including Dexter, Weeds and The Tudors.

Next up was another thing that I kept seeing on my news alerts but I was dragging my heels about posting it (because I’m going to be green with envy for anyone who gets to do this!). Superbreak.com is offering a couple of Private Tours of Hampton Court Palace. You can find out more here (use the pull down menu to select the Hampton Court tour… there are two different date options right now).

It looks like things are gearing up for the celebration of the 500th anniversary of Henry VIII’s succession to the throne, so there will probably be a lot more announcements of cool Tudor exhibits and things to do over the next couple of years!

Trailer for “The Other Boleyn Girl”

And the poster:

A very attractive trio! I have to admit that I still haven’t read the book, but I do hope to see the movie. I’m really curious to see Natalie Portman’s performance as Anne. There are a couple of shots in the trailer that are quite interesting… especially Anne in coronation robes and regalia in a pose quite similar to her daughter’s 26 years later.


Survey results…

ACK! I totally forgot to post this Friday afternoon/evening and just now remembered it.

Here’s the graphical output for the results (click for a larger version)

And here are the raw numbers — there were a total of 213 votes cast, so here’s how the responses break down in actual votes and percentages (winner in bold):

Who is your favorite Tudor monarch?
Henry VII – 7 votes, 3.3%
Henry VIII – 62 votes, 29.1%
Edward VI – 0 votes, 0% (poor Edward!)
Jane Grey – 10 votes, 4.7%
Mary I – 4 votes, 1.9%
Elizabeth I – 130 votes, 61%

If you could go back in time and witness just one of the following events, which would it be?
The Battle of Bosworth Field – 14 votes, 6.6%
The wedding of Catherine of Aragon and Henry VIII – 43 votes, 20.2%
The Field of Cloth of Gold – 54 votes, 25.5%
The coronation of Elizabeth I – 77 votes, 36.2%
The defeat of the Spanish Armada – 25 votes, 11.7%

Did you study the Tudors at school (any education level)?
Yes – 128 votes, 60.1%
No – 85 votes, 39.9%

Have you ever attended or participated in a Renaissance Faire or historical re-enactment activity?
Yes – 114 votes, 53.5%
No – 99 votes, 46.5%

Do you have a Tudor-related tattoo?
Yes – 7
No – 206 votes, 96.7%

Tudor survey and contest give-away wrap-up

I just sent off emails to the 5 randomly chosen winners of the give-away for merchandise from “The Tudors” television series, so if you entered, keep an eye on your email!

I’ll post the outcome of the survey later today…. some interesting results. Only seven people of 213 admitted to Tudor tattoos. 🙂

Updated to add: Just in case anyone was interested in how the winners were chosen… I pasted the email addresses into an Excel spreadsheet, so there was a number for each address. Then I went to Random.org and had it generate 5 numbers in the range that the addresses covered (1 to 185, I think). And that’s how they were chosen. If it had been less than 100, I might have gone the “slips of paper” route, but I really didn’t feel like cutting nearly 200 email address out!

Couple of quick links

Thanks to Kathy for the note on this one:

Varese Sarabnde will be releasing the soundtrack of “The Tudors” in December. More info from their Upcoming Releases page.

And this is an interesting link from Linda about British Tourism taking advantage of popular movies. Here’s the Yahoo story and the special page on Elizabeth:The Golden Age tourism.

Now I just wish the exchange rate would be more favorable for those of us in the US to to travel to Britain *sigh*.

Remembering Deborah Kerr

While this is only tangentially Tudor-related, Foose reminded me in comments to the Elizabeth open thread that I wanted to comment on the passing of Deborah Kerr. (And yes, I’ll do some more “open threads” in the future on some other topics, since it was kind of fun to read other people’s thoughts on “The Golden Age”).

I first really got into the Tudors when I was about 14 years old, which was also about the time that I really got hooked on watching old movies. I think it was around this time that American Movie Classics and channels like that starting popping up and I fell in love with some of the old movies (not to mention forming crushes on some of the actors, in particular Cary Grant and Yul Brynner). So, of course, I started seeking out old historical movies, and I’m pretty sure the first Tudor one I watched was “Young Bess” (1953). Jean Simmons and Stewart Granger (who were married to one another at the time) star as the young Elizabeth and Thomas Seymour, Charles Laughton reprises his role from “The Private Life of Henry VIII” (1933) as the big king himself and Deborah Kerr played Katherine Parr. Interestingly, the boy who played Edward VI in “Young Bess” would go on to play the son of Kerr’s character in “The King and I” (one of my all-time favorite movies).

When the news came out the Deborah Kerr had died, the coverage mostly mentioned the famous kiss on the beach in “From Here to Eternity” and her roles in “The King and I” and “An Affair to Remember”, but I also thought of her in the role I first saw her – Queen Katherine Parr in “Young Bess”.

Image from Wikipedia

“The Tudors” give-away and survey extended

I’m going to leave the survey open for another two weeks because I’m going to be very, very busy in the next week or so, so I don’t think I’ll get a chance to deal with all of that this weekend.

BTW, I was originally hoping to get the October podcast out this weekend (Oct 13-14), but it looks like next weekend is more realistic. I’m slowly moving them up towards the beginning of the month, but I probably won’t start getting them out in the first week of the month until the start of the new year.

Here’s the link to the survey, if you haven’t already taken it.