Shardlake

I have recently watched both Shardlake and Shogun, one set in historic England the other in historic Japan. Both had wonderful costumes and locations designed to represent the location and period they were set in, but Shogun used actors of Japanese origin for all the Japanese parts while Shardlake did not respect the ethnicity of the historic English characters.

Both countries had small numbers of foreigners present at the time, with the estimated number of black people in 16th Century England to be no more than about 100. In no way were either country "diverse" and England was 99.99% white, with most people never seeing a non-white person in their life time.

Whereas Shogun drew me in to a believable world, Shardlake broke all immersion with the use of inappropriate races for the time.

Shardlake is spoilt by Disney's current political agenda - why did they respect the ethnicity of the Japanese characters in Shogun but not the English characters in Shardlake? Double-standards?

I am glad Shogun stuck to authenticity with its casting, but Disney should pay the same respect to historic white European dramas.

There is more to putting a drama like this together than sinister music, sinister looks and a bit of running about.

The shame about SHARDLAKE is that the budget is there and the actor are there, the script however isn't.

The adaptation takes a strong book by C J SANSOM and makes it a meandering mess of a thing, a basic detective procedural laced with long exposition sections in the refectory, replete with lingering glances, meaningful stares and moody music.

The music is a sub Hans Zimmer smush of broody brace and tense strings that doesn't really drive the action, just paints it in different variants of beige.

It's a diverting watch but could have been so much better in the hands of writers and directors who trusted the material.

As a huge fan of the Shardlake books I was excited to see this production. It did not disappoint for acting and entertainment but I did feel it was abbreviated and could have been a couple of episodes longer. I also felt that the addition of a rather unlikely number of black characters did take away a very important element of how the black apothecary monk stood out as different; that said it didn't really effect the plot too much. The thing that did annoy me was the replacing of the character Mark Poer Shardlake's manservant, with Jack Barak, a character who makes his first appearance in the follow up novel "Dark Fire" I assume this is done to allow a continuing partnership in the next Shardlake series but this meant adjusting the ending of this series. So unnecessary! We are not children, we can cope with the introduction of new characters.

I'd forgotten the plot of the original Dissolution novel on which this is based hence the whodunnit element was enough to keep me watching the whole series. I see some reviewers are critical of casting choices which I can't truly see any issue with - it's a dramatisation, faithfulness to the period in terms of exact settings, clothing, architecture etc don't need to be adhered to, as after all, in the time of its setting the language spoken itself would've been impossible to recreate faithfully to modern viewers understanding! I'm interested to see if further adaptations will continue as I do love the genre of medieval murder mysteries and TV lacks these! But the main characters were well developed and cast, and I'm amused at the irony of Sean Bean playing Cromwell who, we all know, irl did not meet a happy and peaceful ending, much like many of the characters Sean plays...

I'm only one episode in. So far, the characterisation is good. The production values impressive and the direction stellar. Alas, already the immersion into the 16th century setting is stifled by 21st century narratives.

I'm personally not a British person. Yet, I can't help but feel insulted on behalf of the real historical people of the time period in England.

When I watch a "historical drama", as a viewer with an interest in history, I want immersion. It's a sad indictment of modern society when historical TV productions feel obligated to be all inclusive in the name of progressive politics.

The story itself is very intriguing, but the show as a whole feels disingenuous and far removed from the time period. There are dual narratives at play. One is set in the 16th century and the other is set firmly in the 21st and it's difficult to separate one from the other.

If you don't require immersion you'll probably enjoy the series. However, I personally find it difficult to suspend belief enough to envision that so many people in 16th England were of Asian and sub-Saharan African descent.

This is just an honest opinion of someone who has no political agenda or biases whatsoever. I like historical dramas. Unfortunately, this historical/fantasy hybrid is not something I can invest in.