Meet Anne Boleyn's latest incarnation. The most talked about Queen that England has ever had continues to fascinate, five centuries after her death. And now Jodie Turner-Smith is glimpsed bringing her to life for the first time.
The star plays the consort for whom Henry VIII changed the world in an upcoming Channel 5 dramatisation of her life called, simply, Anne Boleyn. It's written by Eve Hedderwick Turner and directed by Lynsey Miller and it tells Anne's story from her own perspective as it reaches its dangerous, dramatic and ultimately deadly conclusion.
It's being billed as a psychological thriller, aiming to shine a light on the terror faced by Anne has her carefully crafted network of power began to unravel spectacularly, leading to her imprisonment and execution. It's also got a feminist perspective with Fable Pictures, who made the programme, saying the aim is to ''encapsulate Anne's determination to be equal among men and to pave a path for her daughter''. Anne's only child went on to rule England in her own right as Elizabeth I.
I have to say I'm intrigue to see how that plays out as Anne's role in crafting the image of women ruling by themselves isn't one that's been explored all that often. However, what's dominating discussion now is the actress playing the queen. I'm always rather dubious of the phrase ''a row has broken out on social media''. It's kind of like reporting people squabbling in the pub when such places were still open. And it's being bandied around right now as we meet the latest screen incarnation of Anne Boleyn. For Jodie Turner-Smith is the first black actress of play the queen.
Those behind the production say they have the best actress for the job and that should be what matters. Anne, like a myriad of historic characters both real and imagined, exists in a universe outside the mere facts of her life. She has become so much to so many people that Anne Boleyn is as much a concept as a person. The imagining of her life and ambitions is always worth a fresh take especially as so much of that now focuses on how she felt and how those emotions directed the course of her own and other lives. Jodie Turner-Smith is a really good actress and this is a production that promises much.
Photo by Parisa Taghizadeh / Fable / ViacomCBS/ Channel 5
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