The Six Wives of Henry VIII (1970 TV series)

The Six Wives of Henry VIII is a series of six television plays produced by the BBC and first transmitted between 1 January and 5 February 1970. The series later aired in the United States on CBS from 1 August to 5 September 1971 with narration added by Anthony Quayle. The series was rebroadcast in the United States without commercials on PBS as part of its Masterpiece Theatre series.

Each of the six plays focuses on a single wife, often from their perspective, and was written by a different dramatist. The series was produced by Mark Shivas and Ronald Travers and directed by Naomi Capon and John Glenister.

Cast

 * Keith Michell as Henry VIII
 * Wolfe Morris as Thomas Cromwell
 * Annette Crosbie as Catherine of Aragon
 * Dorothy Tutin as Anne Boleyn
 * Anne Stallybrass as Jane Seymour
 * Elvi Hale as Anne of Cleves
 * Angela Pleasance as Catherine Howard
 * Rosalie Crutchley as Catherine Parr
 * Patrick Troughton as the Duke of Norfolk
 * Bernard Hepton as Archbishop Thomas Cranmer
 * Sheila Burrell as Lady Rochford
 * Basil Dignam as Bishop Gardiner
 * John Woodnutt as Henry VII
 * Valentine Palmer as Lord Willoughby
 * Mollie Sugden as Lotte, handmaid to Anne of Cleves
 * Robert James as Robert Barnes
 * Catherine Lacey as Dowager Duchess of Norfolk

Reception
Historian Eric Ives commended the interpretation of writers Rosemary Sisson and Nick McCarty as leading the modern audience to a better understanding of the actions and values of King Henry and Anne Boleyn.

Legacy
The series spawned a sequel, Elizabeth R (1971), starring Glenda Jackson, which included several performers reprising their roles in the first episode: Ronane, Hepton, Dignam and Crutchley. A prequel, The Shadow of the Tower (1972), starring James Maxwell and Norma West as Henry's parents, Henry VII and Elizabeth of York.

Jane Seymour writer Ian Thorne adapted the series into the film Henry VIII and His Six Wives (1972). Michell reprises his role, with the wives being portrayed by Frances Cuka, Charlotte Rampling, Jane Asher, Jenny Bos, Lynne Frederick and Barbara Leigh-Hunt. Cromwell is played by Donald Pleasence, and the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk by Michael Gough and Brian Blessed.