The Shadow of the Tower

The Shadow of the Tower is a BBC historical drama series from 1972, about the reign of king Henry vii (not to be confused with his more famous son, Henry viii). Made shortly after The Six Wives of Henry viii and Elizabeth R (1970 and 1971 respectively), this is much less well known than either of them, despite being the third part of a thematic trilogy about the Tudor kings and queens.

While the earlier series were both made up of 90-minute episodes, meaning each was the length of a film - and each could be viewed as self-contained, stand-alone films - here the series is of the more familiar form of 13 episodes of roughly 50 minutes in duration. BBC historical dramas had already used this format for The First Churchills (1969) and it would continue to be standard - not just for historical dramas, of course - throughout the 1970s and beyond.

This series is not easily available to view in the UK, having not had a UK DVD release. 11 of the 13 parts are available to watch (at time of writing) in the Yousual place, but the remaining two, episodes 9 and 10, have been blocked by BBC Studios, the rotten spoilsports.

I wouldn't object to this if there were some other way of viewing the series, whether it be via the BBC iPlayer, a proper commercial release on DVD, or on their streaming platform BritBox. Or even, Hoff forbid, repeating the series on one of their television channels, mew! But the way things are, the BBC would have in no way lost out by leaving the episodes up where they were, and by blocking them they simply deny curious cats the opportunity to learn about two-thirteenths of the reign of king Henry vii.

The main plot of the series concerns the many conspiracies and attempts to overthrow Henry vii since, contrary to popular belief (and later Tudor-era propaganda), the Wars of the Roses and the conflict between the houses of York and Lancaster didn't end the moment king Richard iii died horseless. There are multiple attempts by the Yorkist faction to find an alternative king, either from the surviving members of the house of York, or by finding someone who looks a bit like one of them and then pretending they are. The title of the series, then, is a reference to the Tower of London, where most of these pretenders end up imprisoned - sometimes only very briefly.

The only character to appear in all the episodes is king Henry vii himself, played by James Maxwell, who is well cast in the role and with a distinctive voice. His allies and enemies come and go as required, with notable appearances from Morris "Captain Dent" Perry and David "Monkey" Collings as conspiring clergy (Collings also played a conspirator in Elizabeth R, he's lucky he didn't get typecast), and a young Christopher Neame as the Earl of Warwick (one of the aforementioned Yorkist claimants). This must have been around the same time he became a major player in Colditz - his episode here also involves an attempt to escape from a prison.

Peter "Count Grendel of Gracht" Jeffrey deserves a special mention for his appearance. Of the episodes we can view, the best by far is the fifth, The Serpent and the Comforter. This takes a break from the main, conspiracy-laden storyline to tell a different sort of tale. Jeffrey plays a religious heretic who has been condemned to be burned to death for his heresy, and whose case the king takes an interest and attempts to save his soul (though not his life).

There are only five characters (excluding extras) in the whole episode, out of whom only the king appears in any of the rest of the series, and none of them are named, either on-screen or in the credits - they are credited as The King, The Prisoner, The Priest, The Guard, The Soldier. It plays out like a... well, like a play, that might not have been part of the series at all. Nevertheless it is riveting drama, and is outstanding.

The other episode I would single out is part seven, A Fly in the Ointment, albeit for quite a different reason, as here the series tries (and succeeds) at doing comedy. One group of conspirators, growing frustrated with their sides' repeated failures at deposing king Henry by way of rebellions or invading with armies from Europe, decide to try to assassinate him using magic, and set about hiring an astrologer to do the job for them.

The humour then arises from the differing levels of credulity between the various conspirators (Peter Bowles gives a good performance as a servant who is less gullible than his superiors), and the presentation to us, the viewers, of the 'magician' as an obvious con artist when we see how he behaves when his clients are not present.

As the series reaches its ending, it enters more familiar historical territory. With all the various conspiracies dealt with and his throne secure, king Henry intends for his son and heir to marry princess Catherine of Aragon, and makes arrangements with the Spanish ambassador, a recurring character played by John "Li H'sen Chang" Bennett. The only trouble is that this "son and heir" is prince Arthur, who then unexpectedly dies soon after the wedding. This leaves the younger prince Henry as the new heir, who has to marry his brother's widow. Which is the very situation that The Six Wives of Henry viii began with, so this prequel series has taken us full circle.

The studio-bound nature of the series, with limited sets (the Tower of London 'exterior' where characters look off screen at events that they can see, but we can't, is particularly stagy), hints that this was a lower-budget series than either of its prestigious predecessors. It is more in the vein of I Claudius (which was still four years away when this was made) in putting total reliance on the actors to make you believe in the drama. While not succeeding to quite the same extent as I Claudius (what does?), this is still a series well worth the watching.

Hopefully BBC Studios will let us do that at some point. Mew.