The Six Wives of Henry VIII (1970 TV series)

The Six Wives of Henry VIII is a series of six television plays produced by the BBC and first transmitted between 1 January and 5 February 1970. The series later aired in the United States on CBS from 1 August to 5 September 1971 with narration added by Anthony Quayle. The series was rebroadcast in the United States without commercials on PBS as part of its Masterpiece Theatre series.

Each of the six plays focuses on a single wife, often from their perspective, and was written by a different dramatist. The series was produced by Mark Shivas and Ronald Travers and directed by Naomi Capon and John Glenister.

Cast

• Keith Michell as Henry VIII
• Wolfe Morris as Thomas Cromwell
• Annette Crosbie as Catherine of Aragon
• Dorothy Tutin as Anne Boleyn
• Anne Stallybrass as Jane Seymour
• Elvi Hale as Anne of Cleves
• Angela Pleasence as Catherine Howard
• Rosalie Crutchley as Catherine Parr
• Patrick Troughton as the Duke of Norfolk
• Bernard Hepton as Archbishop Thomas Cranmer
• Sheila Burrell as Lady Rochford
• Basil Dignam as Bishop Gardiner
• John Woodnutt as Henry VII
• Valentine Palmer as Lord Willoughby
• Mollie Sugden as Lotte, handmaid to Anne of Cleves
• Robert James as Robert Barnes
• Catherine Lacey as Dowager Duchess of Norfolk

Episodes

Reception

Historian Eric Ives commended the interpretation of writers Rosemary Sisson and Nick McCarty as leading the modern audience to a better understanding of the actions and values of King Henry and Anne Boleyn.

Awards and honours

Legacy

The series spawned a sequel, Elizabeth R (1971), starring Glenda Jackson, which included several performers reprising their roles in the first episode: Ronane, Hepton, Dignam and Crutchley. A prequel, The Shadow of the Tower (1972), starring James Maxwell and Norma West as Henry's parents, Henry VII and Elizabeth of York.

Jane Seymour writer Ian Thorne adapted the series into the film Henry VIII and His Six Wives (1972). Michell reprises his role, with the wives being portrayed by Frances Cuka, Charlotte Rampling, Jane Asher, Jenny Bos, Lynne Frederick and Barbara Leigh-Hunt. Cromwell is played by Donald Pleasence, and the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk by Michael Gough and Brian Blessed.

See also

• Wives of Henry VIII
• Cultural depictions of Henry VIII
• Cultural depictions of Anne Boleyn

References

External links

• The Six Wives of Henry VIII at IMDb

1. Henry VIII and His Six Wives
2. The Six Wives of Henry VIII
3. Wives of Henry VIII
4. Jane Seymour
5. Annette Crosbie
6. Keith Michell
7. Anthony Quayle
8. Cultural depictions of Anne Boleyn
9. Zienia Merton
10. Bernard Hepton
11. Thomas Culpeper
12. Anne Stallybrass
13. Fictional portrayals of Thomas Cromwell
14. David Munrow
15. Peter Stephens (actor)
16. Jane Boleyn, Viscountess Rochford
17. Frances Cuka
18. Corwin (TV series)
19. List of British television programmes
20. Rosalie Crutchley