Why Georgie loves her Tudor tales

THIS isn’t a spoiler, but Henry VIII’s sister Meg Tudor — aka Margaret, Queen of Scots — played by Georgie Henley, will get to keep her head when the gripping 16-part Starz television drama The Spanish Princess ends its run on Sunday.

But the stakes are still high for Meg, whose conflict with her husband, James IV of Scotland, ‘is down to the bone’, as Henley put it. ‘Everything is on a knife edge. If you cross Henry VIII, you might get your head chopped off, even if you’re his closest friend — or closest family!’

Well, Meg lived to be 50 — a ripe old age for Tudor times. (In the historical thriller, Henley plays her until she’s 30.)

Henley, 25, (pictured) and her university friend Emma Corrin (Princess Diana in The Crown) are often begged by fans not to ruin the suspense by telling them what happens next. ‘People keep telling her not to give away spoilers and she’s like: “Well, it’s history...” ’

A lot of the success of The Spanish Princess is down to its fascinating female characters led by Charlotte Hope’s Catherine of Aragon, Laura Carmichael’s Maggie Pole, Stephanie Levi-John’s Lina de Cardonnes and Harriet Walter’s Margaret Beaufort.

‘There were so many of us! A real sense of sisterhood,’ Henley told me. The show had explored the ‘concepts of gender and power’, with many of the women, if they survived, fighting for their freedom.

The themes of motherhood have also been as powerful as the all-action moments. ‘My character wants to be heard politically, but because she’s a mother, she’s instantly placed in a box and told her opinions don’t matter.’

Completing the second batch of eight episodes came down to the wire, with final scenes being filmed just before the first lockdown. Georgie raced from her London flat to her family home in Ilkley, West Yorkshire. In between writing scripts she spent the first weeks hunkered in her parents’ bedroom, recording additional dialogue. ‘You’d be on Zoom with the director and sound engineers and you’re responsible for the recording. The pressure!’

The task required absolute silence; so Georgie used bedding as soundproofing (she got the award for ‘best duvet fort’).

To relax, she indulged her twin passions: high-brow films and low-brow TV. She’s part of a WhatsApp group which discusses American reality TV hit Real Housewives. ‘But now there’s tension, because some of us are on Real Housewives of New York, and some of us are on Beverly Hills. The group’s in disarray!’ Her goal, she says, is to spot a Real Housewife ‘in the wild’.

Till then, she’s keeping her fingers crossed that a new film she’s signed on to will be able to go ahead next year.

The Spanish Princess is available through Amazon Prime and AppleTV+.