The Boleyns: A Scandalous Family

After Channel five's abomination of The Anne Boleyn story, I was expecting great things from this BBC drama documentary.

All in all, it's pretty good, it's very practical, very informative, it provides you with lots of facts, and historically accurate information about the whole of the family, in particular the rise and fall of Anne.

I loved the accuracy of the info, I was less than impressed by the drama elements, at times it looked a little bit cheap, The BBC are renowned for their costume dramas, but this unfortunately doesn't cut the mustard.

Watchable, informative, just wanted a bit more from it, 6/10.

This is almost unbearable to watch, and I could not get through the first episode. The talking heads are completely unnecessary and offer no insight at all, delivery trite social comments that are hardly considered opinion. I do begin to wonder about the worth of these programmes in capturing the historical fact ; it would be far better to have a miniseries , like the White Queen that blended historical fact with creative licence - but heck at least it was interesting. This dribble is unwatchable.

Historically this is absolutely accurate and very good. Just one small historical inaccuracy, Anne Boleyn was not known for her beauty as we are told in the series. It was her personality, her charm and sophistication that made her so attractive. Tracey Borman, Tudor historian and curator of Historic Royal Palaces, has been very clear on this. However, I found the re-enactment unnecessary and rather amateurish. History dumbed down again. People are not so silly that they need a half cocked play going on in the background. The BBC have previously produced wonderful history programmes with Mary Beard, Simon Schama, David Dimbleby and more, where the audience has not had to endure a hammy pretence of the period in question taking place every few minutes.

The costumes and the hair styles are terrible and inaccurate. Norfolk is wearing knickerbockers which were not popular until the Elizabethan age. Wolsey is not seen wearing the Great Seal, Anne's hoods are not always right for the era and all the men have wild unkempt hair except for George Boleyn who has a style straight from the 1980's. Did they do this on the cheap, because it certainly looks like it.

I thought this was splendid. The actors were amazing- and I enjoyed how a lot of the history was spoken through their eyes. I do realize that we as a society will Never fully know everything that happened during this period, but I do feel that now I have a better understanding. I can't even begin to imagine how the simple act of living, and being was during that period... least of all to be a female. Of course, they didn't understand yet that it's the Male that determines the sex of a child... Can you imagine how Different history would have turned out??

If you are a lover of Anne Boleyn/ Tudor history, this is a must watch in my opinion.

There's plenty of inaccurate history in this miniseries. Anne Boleyn's time in France was touched upon but the fact that her older sister Mary was also part of the French court is not touched upon at all. Mary Boleyn had a reputation as a person of uncertain virtue. Not only did she become Henry VIII's mistress, but she was also rumored to have slept with the French king so the portrayal of her as an unwilling mistress is entirely false. Even the portrayal of Anne as "beautiful" was false. She was considered to be fairly plain: she had a sallow complexion and dark hair and a bosom "not much raised" at a time when women of fair coloring were considered to represent the ideal of beauty.

Many pivotal figures are not represented here. What happened to Thomas Moore and Jane Rochfort for example?

I hoped for more historical accuracy.