Tudor Gang Takes on the Sopranos

He's dashing, sexy and athletic. He's a king, a warrior and a lover. He is also set to be the next hottest thing on American television. Meet Henry VIII.

Britain's much-married Tudor monarch is the unlikely choice for the latest television sensation. Tonight begins the premiere of the eagerly anticipated multi-million-dollar series The Tudors, starring Irish actor, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, as Henry. But the version of Henry hitting US TV screens is not the classic one of a portly, middle-aged monarch with a penchant for chopping the heads off his wives. This Henry has been dressed up for modern US tastes, focusing on his early reign and portraying him as more of a rock star than a royal.

Rhys Meyers plays Henry as a bare-chested athlete, seducing beautiful women, fighting and brawling around his court with Thomas More and Cardinal Wolsey. 'We don't want the traditional Henry, all fat and chewing on a rib. Rhys Meyers is sexier than that. He looks fantastic,' said journalist Gayl Murphy.

Rhys Meyers's Henry is just the edge of a wave of Tudor-themed movies soon to flood America. An adaptation of Philippa Gregory's Tudor novel The Other Boleyn Girl is due to be released later this year starring Natalie Portman as Anne Boleyn and Scarlett Johansson as her sister Mary. Johansson has also been cast as Mary, Queen of Scots, in a film due out next year, written by Jimmy McGovern. And Cate Blanchett is also set to reprise her role as Elizabeth I in The Golden Age, the long-awaited sequel to the Oscar-nominated Elizabeth

Perhaps it is no surprise that the 16th century has started to inspire Hollywood's filmmakers. It was an era of profound religious conflict, beset by wars and threats to the security of the Tudor kingdom. Those are all themes that play well into the cinematic mindset of a nation menaced by terrorism. Showtime, the US cable channel behind The Tudors, has invested $25m in the series, making it the most expensive project in its history. The programme's writers claim it is 85 per cent historically accurate but caters to modern soap opera tastes. 'This show really plays like a soap. We wanted to get people hooked,' said Matt Blank, Showtime's chief executive.

The series will run for an initial 10 episodes and will focus on Henry's relationship with his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, and his subsequent affair with Anne Boleyn, looking at how it led to England's secession from the Catholic church. Rhys Meyers's Henry debates philosophy at the same time as he drinks to excess, smashes the furniture and is in a constant state of bare-chested undress.

And, though most school children have an image of a stout Henry, the young king was not so far off the new Hollywood version. Henry was a fine sportsman, excelling at jousting, hunting and real tennis. He wrote poetry and gambled. Whether he quite exuded the continual snarling sex appeal that Rhys Meyers gives the monarch is probably more open to debate, but the gambit should appeal to modern Americans and could catapult Rhys Meyers into the Hollywood A-list. 'He has what it takes to play a leading role like this,' said Murphy.

Aside from facing up to European enemies on screen, The Tudors also faces a different sort of battle. For years the prime Sunday-evening television slot in America has been dominated by HBO's The Sopranos, the saga of a Mafia family. But that series, one of the most acclaimed and successful in television history, is now in its last season - the final nine episodes will be screened from next Sunday - and TV executives are desperately searching for a similar vehicle dripping in sex, violence and drama. There are those who believe The Tudors might be it: the Wall Street Journal hailed the conflict as 'Tony vs. The Tudors' .

Certainly the series is likely to offer a riposte to those who say US television is long past its golden age of quality drama. Though the 'big three' main networks often shy away from costume dramas, the cable sector has produced top-notch hits such as Rome and the Western series Deadwood. 'No network would touch a mini-series set in Tudor England. But the cable channels show that it can work,' said Bob Thompson, a professor of popular culture at Syracuse University.

One drawback to the series' success, however, is that few Americans will have any idea of who the Tudors were. 'I suspect that few Americans could place the Tudors in the correct century of English history,' said Thompson. But Showtime's bet is that any audience fed a quality diet of sex and swordplay won't really be too concerned about the historic setting. 'If the story is good enough, the setting does not matter,' Thompson added.

Three to watch

Showtime, the company behind The Tudors, is challenging HBO as the home of quality television drama. Here are three of its best offerings that have been snapped by British TV:

Brotherhood


The brutal story of two feuding brothers, one a politician, the other a crook.

Sleeper Cell

Controversial, critically acclaimed series about a group of terrorists and the undercover agent who infiltrates them.

Dexter

Black drama about a likeable forensics expert who happens to be a serial killer. It hits UK screens later this year.