Henry & Catherine & Anne & Jane & Anne, Etc.

By Katie Kelly

King Henry VIII fulminated and fornicated across the landscape of 16th century England, leaving behind a legacy both glorious and gory. Henry expanded his realm by bringing in Wales and Ireland. He gave England poetry, music, art and literature. Henry also gave it Protestantism, six queens, two royal beheadings, three heirs, countless bastard children--and nearly bankrupted the country in the process.

Now, fortunately, the BBC and CBS are giving American viewers Henry in a brilliant six-part pageant entitled The Six Wives of Henry VIII, that began Sunday, Aug. 1.

Fascinating Characters. Heading the excellent cast is Keith Michell as Henry, the man with a hard heart and an elastic conscience. We see him first as a slim, fey, slightly bland youth of 18, living a sheltered life surrounded by tutors and priests. He progresses through the series like a prefab castle, adding pounds and psychological dimensions as if they were rooms. By the final segment, the slender, shy youth has become a man swathed in fat, so overbearing and overburdened that he can barely rise from his chair--much less to his earlier level of greatness. Michell won England's equivalent of the Emmy for his fascinating character study of the complex king.

The parade of women is equally fascinating. As Archbishop Cranmer puts it in the final segment: "There has been a great harvesting of queens in our time." While all of the actresses portraying Henry's sundry wives are extraordinarily good, there are two standouts in the series. Annette Crosbie as Henry's first wife, Catherine of Aragon, is perhaps the finest. As the young Spanish princess, she is appropriately shy and frightened; she ages gently into the grand old Queen, beloved of her subjects and even in his deepening hysteria for a son, by her husband and King. Finally, we see her as a sick and aged woman, bewildered by events that have taken from her both husband and crown. As Henry's last Queen, Rosalie Crutchley effectively plays a staunch Catherine Parr, a waspish and religious woman with pursed face and stern views on a woman's duty both to Christ and to her husband. Miss Crutchley's Catherine is determined and unyielding as she saves herself from what was becoming the almost inevitable trip to the Tower.

Painless History. Each segment was written by a different author, and each is independent of the others. But they blend perfectly. CBS and the BBC are not content to let history rest: CBS is currently dickering for the BBC series that stars Glenda Jackson as Elizabeth I, Henry VIII's daughter by Anne Boleyn. Taken together, the two series constitute a sort of Tudor One Man's Family, elegant television viewing and a painless way to learn some history. -Katie Kelly

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