Today, I’ve got a bit of a confession to make – I’ve started watching My Lady Jane on Amazon Prime and I’m loving it. From social media comments, I gather that as a historian, I’m meant to hate it, but nope, I love it!
Based on the book by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows, it’s a fantasy with only a passing resemblance to actual history. Think The Princess Bride with shape-shifters and regicidal maniacs. It’s laugh-out-loud funny, packed with adventure, and has an amazing cast…
Transcript:
Today, I’ve got a bit of a confession to make – I’ve started watching My Lady Jane on Amazon Prime and I’m loving it. I’m having to ration myself regarding episodes and I watch it with Tim, and he’s been out a lot – a musician’s life – so we’ve only watched four episodes, but I’m well and truly hooked.
From comments on social media, I gather that I’m meant to hate it, as someone who is a historian and is serious about Tudor history, but, nope, I love it.
I love it so much that I’ve just added the first book on my kindle, and I’m pretty sure that I’ll end up reading the whole series.
The blurb for the first book, also called My Lady Jane, sums it up for me:
“In My Lady Jane, coauthors Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows have created a one-of-a-kind YA fantasy in the tradition of The Princess Bride, featuring a reluctant king, an even more reluctant queen, a noble steed, and only a passing resemblance to actual history—because sometimes history needs a little help.
At sixteen, Lady Jane Grey is about to be married off to a stranger and caught up in a conspiracy to rob her cousin, King Edward, of his throne. But those trifling problems aren’t for Jane to worry about. Jane gets to be Queen of England.
Like that could go wrong.”
That’s great blurb for the TV series as well, it describes it brilliantly. It has only a passing resemblance to history, and it’s fantasy.
And here’s what RottenTomatoes.com says:
“An epic tale of true love, high adventure, regicidal maniacs, deadpan heroism, devious intrigues, swashbuckling swordfights and oodles of yearning, banter and undeniable chemistry.”
Yes!
I don’t want to give too much away, but the protagonist is, of course, Lady Jane Grey, a girl who just wants to be left alone to her books and coming up with herbal remedies, rather than marrying a guy she’s never met just so her mum can get her hands on the Dudley’s money.
And Jane lives in a world which, instead of being divided by religion, is divided by whether you’re a normal person, a Verity, or a shape-shifter known as an Ethian. There is a war on Ethians. And Edward VI is, of course, dying, supposedly of the affliction, and he’s writing his device for the succession, with the help of Lords Seymour and Dudley, who both want very different things, and with one sister who thinks the world of him and the other who wants him dead, and who also likes a bit of bondage on the side.
It’s tongue-in- cheek, it has F-bombs galore, some sexual content, as Amazon prime, describes it, and it’s laugh out loud funny at times. And the cast is fantastic. I mean, I never would have chosen Rob Brydon as John Dudley and Anna Chancellor as Lady Frances Grey – but yes, it works. Although my favourite character has to be Margaret, Jane’s little sister – yes, she’s called Margaret not Mary. She’s a wonderful little actress. And the narrator, Oliver Chris, is also a hoot.
It may be a fantasy, it may be comedy really, but they’ve gone all out with costumes and locations. Mary’s gowns, in particular, are exquisite, and don’t get me started on the codpieces.
Filming locations include Herstmonceux Castle as Edward VI’s main palace, Great Chalfield Manor as the Greys’ estate, Broughton Castle as the Dudleys’ home, the gardens and courtyards of Hampton Court Palace, and it also features Dorney Court, Dover Castle, the Ashridge estate, Langley Park, the Chiltern Open Air Museum, and The Priory Church of St Bartholomew the Great in London. Some beautiful architecture to enjoy.
It really gives the look and feel of 16th century England.
It hasn’t annoyed me at all. Not one iota!
It’s so fantastical, so funny, so far removed from actual history, that nobody can take it as factual. I mean, I don’t think anyone’s going to ask me if Anne Boleyn was an Ethian, for example, and if it gets people googling Lady Jane Grey, then that’s brilliant. Oh, and I know where Anne Boleyn’s B necklace got to, Princess B has it safely – phew!
I don’t agree with comments that it’s an insult to Lady Jane Grey. So far, she’s pretty much how I imagine Jane to have been – bookish, not suffering fools gladly, a tough cookie – although the real Jane was definitely highly religious, even a zealot, and I’m not sure she was as good with a dagger as her fictional version. I know Jane was tragically executed, her story is a sad one, but she definitely wasn’t a young woman who saw herself as a victim. I think she’d quite enjoy seeing her swashbuckling side.
Watch it. Put history to one side and just have a laugh. Feel good about the fact that people are being so inspired by the stories of 16th century people that it’s leading them to be creative and to produce books and series like this that are engaging the masses. That’s how I’m thinking about it. It’s not claiming to be an accurate retelling, in fact, it’s making it very clear that it’s not.
Have a sense of humour. Get lost in it, have some fun! And if you don’t like it, well, try something else.
Excuse me, got to dash, episode 5 is waiting for me! See you soon!
Blackadder in my book for a very enjoyable historical romp is hard to beat.