The Shadow of the Tower

5.0
197250m

The Shadow of the Tower is a historical drama that was broadcast on BBC2 in 1972. It was a prequel to the earlier serials The Six Wives of Henry VIII and Elizabeth R. Consisting of thirteen episodes, it focused on the reign of Henry VII of England and the creation of the Tudor dynasty.

Seasons

13 Episodes • Premiered 1972

Still image for The Shadow of the Tower season 1 episode 1: Crown In Jeopardy

1. Crown In Jeopardy

Henry Tudor emerges victorious over Richard III at the battle of Bosworth Field and seeks to form a coalition from which he hopes to establish a Tudor dynasty.

Still image for The Shadow of the Tower season 1 episode 2: Power in the Land

2. Power in the Land

Henry consolidates his power when Elizabeth gives birth to Prince Arthur legitimizing Henry's claim of descent from the legendary monarch.

Still image for The Shadow of the Tower season 1 episode 3: The Schooling Of Apes

3. The Schooling Of Apes

Henrys enemies represent commoner Lambert Simmel as the Earl of Warwick, the York pretender. The Earl of Lincoln leaves for Ireland to head the army that is forming against Henry,

Still image for The Shadow of the Tower season 1 episode 4: The Crowning Of Apes

4. The Crowning Of Apes

Henry forms an army to defend himself against the Irish-German army coming against him from Ireland.

Still image for The Shadow of the Tower season 1 episode 5: The Serpent And The Comforter

5. The Serpent And The Comforter

King Henry is intrigued by a preacher who is arrested for heresy and speaks with him to persuade him to give up his dissension against the practices of the Catholic Church. The preacher emphasizes to him the simplicity of the Gospel, and his suffering and convictions impress a young Tower guard.

Still image for The Shadow of the Tower season 1 episode 6: The White Hart

6. The White Hart

The year is 1494 and King Henry is alarmed that the powerful and arrogant Sir William Stanley may be implicated in a plot against his crown .

Still image for The Shadow of the Tower season 1 episode 7: A Fly In The Ointment

7. A Fly In The Ointment

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Addle-brained Sir John Kendall and his dim-witted nephew devise a ludicrous plan to kill the King with a harmless ointment from phony astrologer.

Still image for The Shadow of the Tower season 1 episode 8: The Princely Gift

8. The Princely Gift

Visionary Italian navigator John Cabot has a difficult time convincing Bristol businessmen and the King that his Western voyage to China is practical and profitable.

Still image for The Shadow of the Tower season 1 episode 9: Do The Sheep Sin?

9. Do The Sheep Sin?

Heavy-handed tax policies lead the peasants of Cornwall to march peacefully in protest on London, but an ambitions nobleman wants to use the pilgrimage to his own advantage.

Still image for The Shadow of the Tower season 1 episode 10: The Man Who Never Was

10. The Man Who Never Was

Commoner Perkin Warbeck, pretender to Henry's throne, finds he's losing support throughout Europe.

Still image for The Shadow of the Tower season 1 episode 11: The Strange Shapes Of Reality

11. The Strange Shapes Of Reality

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Although Perkin Warbeck enjoys only house arrest for his treason through Henry's mercy, he continues to plot against the King.

Still image for The Shadow of the Tower season 1 episode 12: The Fledgling

12. The Fledgling

In order to give his dynasty more credibility, Henry tries to arrange a marriage between his son and the Spanish princess, but their are preconditions.

Still image for The Shadow of the Tower season 1 episode 13: The King Without A Face

13. The King Without A Face

The year is now 1501 and Henry is now finally secure on the throne with his promising son Arthur about to marry Catherine of Aragon, however in the shadows tragic events are lying in wait for the King.

Cast

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Reviews

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CinemaSerf

James Maxwell was probably far more accomplished as a theatre director than an actor, and his casting here as the first English Tudor monarch, King Henry VII, is probably the source of this drama's struggles. That king had a reputation for deviousness and ruthlessness that this performance seems to overly sanitise; indeed the whole thing lacks the potency and vibrancy of it's chronological successor "Henry VIII and his Six Wives" (1970). It is spread across 13 fifty minute episodes - some based on fact: his defeat of Richard III; accession; marriage to Edward IV's daughter - Elizabeth of York; Perkin Warbeck and his rebellions etc. and some based on potential scenarios that he may have faced during his reign - the best probably being an encounter with Peter Jeffrey as "The Prisoner", a man accused of heretical behaviour because he happens to believe that Jesus is not best represented to the people by a corrupt and venal Church. There is a decent cast drawn from English theatre circles with Norma West appearing, sparingly, as his wife, but the dialogue is overly verbose; the studio scenery implies some of the dinginess of their actual existence but at the same time leaves us looking at something over staged and really pretty unrealistic (and poorly lit) most of the time. The fact that many of the episodes were directed by different people also doesn't help the continuing, pretty tame, narrative of this fascinatingly shrewd individual from history. Maybe had it just condensed the reign into six episodes under the hand of one director then it would have improved significantly? Rarely available nowadays - probably far too expensive to repeat, but it is still very much worth watching despite it's flaws.

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