Channel 5, Sony Pictures Television and Fable Pictures have released the first image from Anne Boleyn, a new three-part TV drama which gained headlines last year for the casting of black actress Jodie Turner-Smith (Queen & Slim) as the second wife of King Henry VIII.
Written by Eve Hedderwick Turner, Anne Boleyn is describes as “a psychological thriller rather than a stuffy period drama” and “shines a feminist light on the final months of Boleyn’s life, re-imagining her struggle with Tudor England’s patriarchal society, her desire to secure a future for her daughter, Elizabeth, and the brutal reality of her failure to provide Henry with a male heir.”
“There’s so much about her story that feels modern,” said Turner-Smith. “It’s one I can relate to as a Black woman, and it shows how little has changed in terms of our desire to tear down powerful women, to not let them live in their truth.”
Anne Boleyn is set to air on Channel 5 in the UK later this year, and also stars Mark Stanley (White House Farm), Paapa Essiedu (I May Destroy You), Amanda Burton (White House Farm), Thalissa Teixeira (Two Weeks To Live), Barry Ward (White Lines), and Jamael Westman (Hamilton).
