I’ve been watching the TV series (mini-series?) Wolf Hall on PBS lately. I like it but I feel like I’m missing some of the story intracacies since I’m weak on my 16th century British history. I feel like if I’d grown up in the UK then I’d know my Cromwell’s from my Boleyn’s from my Seymour’s. As it is I’m aware of who these people are but honestly have no real idea of how they fit with each other in a historical context.
It’s like with the series TURN on AMC about the American Revolutionary War. The creators of that show don’t go into a lot of historical detail of the hows and the whys since here in the US those things are mostly already known. And I get the feeling that’s happening a lot on Wolf Hall too for audiences in the UK.
That being said I do like Wolf Hall. The characters are well drawn and the story is interesting. I just feel like when certain historical things are going on I’d be gleaning more information from that story than I am if I’d be able to base it in more of the real historical context.
As a side note…it is interesting to see a series about at the time one of the strongest countries on the planet being ruled by a bunch of 20 and 30-somethings. The series could easily be more soap opera-ish, which it apparently was with the Showtime series The Tudors, but here that’s just another fact of life when the average lifespan was someplace in the 40s.
