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dangermousieLookie what I found!
Channel 4 sexes up the Puritans
By Chris Hastings, Arts and Media Editor and Beth Jones, Sunday Telegraph
Last Updated: 1:23am BST 11/06/2007
For almost four centuries the Roundheads have been seen as the Puritan killjoys of history, intent on cancelling Christmas and waging war on fun.
Now, however, their story is about to be retold as one of dashing heroes, passionate people as preoccupied with romance as with rebellion, in a £7 million television drama on the English Civil War.
The Devil's Whore, written by Peter Flannery, who created the acclaimed serial Our Friends in the North, will chart the sexual awakening of a fictitious young aristocratic woman who is drawn to the anti-monarchist cause.
Some of Britain's biggest stars, including Kenneth Branagh, Emily Blunt, James McAvoy and Rufus Sewell, have been lined up to take starring roles in the four-part serial, which opens shortly before the outbreak of civil war in 1642 and concludes with the restoration of the monarchy 18 years later.
Key moments, including the battles of Marston Moor and Naseby and the execution of Charles I, are seen through the experiences of Angelica Fanshawe, a 17-year-old who becomes friendly, and in one case intimate, with leading Parliamentarians including Oliver Cromwell and Thomas Gainsborough.
Fanshawe, who is expected to be played by Blunt, the actress who has starred in The Devil Wears Prad and the 2003 BBC serial Henry VIII, in which she played his fifth wife, Catherine Howard.
Controversially, her character marries Gainsborough, a real-life character who fought with distinction for the Parliamentarians on land and sea and who is expected to be played by Sewell, the star of the film Amazing Grace and the BBC series Charles II, in which he took the lead role.
The depiction of Cromwell, likely to be played by Henry V and Frankenstein star Branagh, will also raise eyebrows, because he will be shown as having Royalist sympathies and agonising over whether to sign Charles I's death warrant.
Flannery, a self-proclaimed republican, believes that merging fact and fiction will help to debunk the myths surrounding Cromwell and the Puritans.
"The Civil War is the incredible untold story in our history," he told The Sunday Telegraph. "In school, we are given a phoney idea of the Cavaliers and Roundheads. We are hoping to paint a very different picture with our drama. All the great characters and events are there but it is as much about what happens in the bedroom as it is on the battlefield."
He added: "The Puritans have had a bad press. The idea that they were humourless and wanted to ban Christmas is just nonsense. They could be as handsome and dashing as anyone else. These were passionate people who were -willing to fight to the death for what they believed in."
Leading historians are, however, uncertain of the merits of interspersing historic figures with fictional characters.
Prof Peter Gaunt, the chairman of the Cromwell Association, said: "The blurring of fact and fiction never works well and there are real dangers inherent in just making it up.
"There are so many good, genuine sources about the period, which are so rich and vibrant, that there is the capacity to make factual and appealing programmes about the Civil War without turning to fiction. Alarm bells are ringing about the series and, if time and money are available, I'd be happier if they were put into proper research."
John Goldsmith, the curator of the Cromwell Museum in Hunting-don, Cambridgeshire, believes that the Civil War contains enough excitement without the need to delve into the bedroom.
"While I am in favour of every attempt to popularise history, there is a danger if it goes too far into the bedroom that the viewer's intellect is insulted," he said. "People are genuinely interested in that period and many of its issues that have resonance today – the role of the monarchy, the power of Parliament, the question of nationhood.
"However, if you mix fact and fiction, it is very difficult for the viewer to distinguish one from the other."
Flannery is unrepentant. "The historical accuracy is there for people who know the period," he insisted. "I would't want people to watch it and think they can sit a ACSE in the subject, just as I would't want people to learn all they needed to know about the American Civil War from Gone with the Wind."
The Devil's Whore, a joint production between Channel 4 and H.O., has been planned for a decade.
I don’t know how Rufus Sewell looks now (though he looks quite scrumptuous in Tristan and Isolde a few years back), but if it’s anything to how he looked in the late 90s (Dangerous Beauty, Dark City), I’d defiinitely betray the royalist cause.
Going to be beyond ahistorical though.
Also, someone should make something on Prince Rupert.
I promise to get to replies soon.
Channel 4 sexes up the Puritans
By Chris Hastings, Arts and Media Editor and Beth Jones, Sunday Telegraph
Last Updated: 1:23am BST 11/06/2007
For almost four centuries the Roundheads have been seen as the Puritan killjoys of history, intent on cancelling Christmas and waging war on fun.
Now, however, their story is about to be retold as one of dashing heroes, passionate people as preoccupied with romance as with rebellion, in a £7 million television drama on the English Civil War.
The Devil's Whore, written by Peter Flannery, who created the acclaimed serial Our Friends in the North, will chart the sexual awakening of a fictitious young aristocratic woman who is drawn to the anti-monarchist cause.
Some of Britain's biggest stars, including Kenneth Branagh, Emily Blunt, James McAvoy and Rufus Sewell, have been lined up to take starring roles in the four-part serial, which opens shortly before the outbreak of civil war in 1642 and concludes with the restoration of the monarchy 18 years later.
Key moments, including the battles of Marston Moor and Naseby and the execution of Charles I, are seen through the experiences of Angelica Fanshawe, a 17-year-old who becomes friendly, and in one case intimate, with leading Parliamentarians including Oliver Cromwell and Thomas Gainsborough.
Fanshawe, who is expected to be played by Blunt, the actress who has starred in The Devil Wears Prad and the 2003 BBC serial Henry VIII, in which she played his fifth wife, Catherine Howard.
Controversially, her character marries Gainsborough, a real-life character who fought with distinction for the Parliamentarians on land and sea and who is expected to be played by Sewell, the star of the film Amazing Grace and the BBC series Charles II, in which he took the lead role.
The depiction of Cromwell, likely to be played by Henry V and Frankenstein star Branagh, will also raise eyebrows, because he will be shown as having Royalist sympathies and agonising over whether to sign Charles I's death warrant.
Flannery, a self-proclaimed republican, believes that merging fact and fiction will help to debunk the myths surrounding Cromwell and the Puritans.
"The Civil War is the incredible untold story in our history," he told The Sunday Telegraph. "In school, we are given a phoney idea of the Cavaliers and Roundheads. We are hoping to paint a very different picture with our drama. All the great characters and events are there but it is as much about what happens in the bedroom as it is on the battlefield."
He added: "The Puritans have had a bad press. The idea that they were humourless and wanted to ban Christmas is just nonsense. They could be as handsome and dashing as anyone else. These were passionate people who were -willing to fight to the death for what they believed in."
Leading historians are, however, uncertain of the merits of interspersing historic figures with fictional characters.
Prof Peter Gaunt, the chairman of the Cromwell Association, said: "The blurring of fact and fiction never works well and there are real dangers inherent in just making it up.
"There are so many good, genuine sources about the period, which are so rich and vibrant, that there is the capacity to make factual and appealing programmes about the Civil War without turning to fiction. Alarm bells are ringing about the series and, if time and money are available, I'd be happier if they were put into proper research."
John Goldsmith, the curator of the Cromwell Museum in Hunting-don, Cambridgeshire, believes that the Civil War contains enough excitement without the need to delve into the bedroom.
"While I am in favour of every attempt to popularise history, there is a danger if it goes too far into the bedroom that the viewer's intellect is insulted," he said. "People are genuinely interested in that period and many of its issues that have resonance today – the role of the monarchy, the power of Parliament, the question of nationhood.
"However, if you mix fact and fiction, it is very difficult for the viewer to distinguish one from the other."
Flannery is unrepentant. "The historical accuracy is there for people who know the period," he insisted. "I would't want people to watch it and think they can sit a ACSE in the subject, just as I would't want people to learn all they needed to know about the American Civil War from Gone with the Wind."
The Devil's Whore, a joint production between Channel 4 and H.O., has been planned for a decade.
I don’t know how Rufus Sewell looks now (though he looks quite scrumptuous in Tristan and Isolde a few years back), but if it’s anything to how he looked in the late 90s (Dangerous Beauty, Dark City), I’d defiinitely betray the royalist cause.
Going to be beyond ahistorical though.
Also, someone should make something on Prince Rupert.
I promise to get to replies soon.
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no subject
Date: 2007-11-08 07:59 pm (UTC)I've ALWAYS thought that. But I guess people tend to like happy endings.
no subject
Date: 2007-11-09 05:00 am (UTC)