Monky business in this historical whodunnit with a Tudor Columbo
t's easy to assume that TV execs believe there are only two periods of history worth bothering with – the Nazis and the Tudors.
But when there is so much politicking, intrigue and, let's face it, bloodletting it's not difficult to see why they're so fascinated.
As new series
(Disney+, all episodes streaming now) shows, it's easy to spin a yarn out of Henry VIII's assault on the Catholic church in a fit of pique at not getting his own way over marriage.
I– based on a series of novels by CJ Sansom, who died earlier this month – mixes in an extra layer of skulduggery, with lawyer Matthew Shardlake, played by Arthur Hughes, sent to a monastery on the Channel coast to investigate a murder.
His boss, Henry's consigliere Thomas Cromwell, has sent him to Scarnsea not just to find a murderer, but if he fails in that task he must at least find Cromwell an excuse to close down the monastery and begin the Reformation.
Sean Bean plays Cromwell with an avuncular air at first, inviting Shardlake to examine a series of holy relics he know to be fake, but the mask soon slips, Bean licking his thin lips with a malicious relish.
“Each and every case supported with evidence,” Cromwell tells Matthew, with a nod and a wink, “I am not above the laws of England... All that said, the house must fall.”
Meanwhile, Cromwell's rival, the Duke of Norfolk (Peter Firth) tells Shardlake to keep him informed of his progress and you fear the lawyer will be caught between Cromwell's rock and Norfolk's hard place.
Lumbered with Cromwell's man Jack Barak (Anthony Boyle) as an assistant, Shardlake heads off the coast and we're plunged into a pretty traditional murder mystery with Tudor trappings.
Our suspects are introduced at a welcome dinner at the monastery, each with a particular personality trait which suggests they could be the murderer.
There's hot-tempered, bullying Brother Mortimus; Brother Gabriel, a young monk branded a 'sodomite'; Brother Edwig, the bookkeeper, who has the glint of gold in his eyes.
The obvious suspect, Brother Jerome (Paul Kaye) is a frothing anti-Cromwellite apparently “disturbed by his past”, but he is so over the top he must the reddest of herrings.
Interviews are conducted, clues followed and the body is examined in a Tudor recreation of the usual post mortem scenes we get in the usual cop dramas set in the present day.
But while Shardlake does have things in common with your run-of-the-mill murdermysteries, it's Tudor setting does give it an unusual spin.
It looks great, for a start, with hooded figures peering from dark corners, the stone walls of the monastery hemming in the characters as surely as a prison, and muck and manure muddying the streets and courtyards – so much so you can almost smell the rot through the screen.
Hughes, as Shardlake, is also a quietly commanding presence, given to soliloquies in the quiet of his room where he can be open to his doubts about Cromwell's mission.
This theatrical device could be quite distracting, but works given the paranoia and suspicion of the time, when a misplaced word could see you branded a heretic.
In the novels, Shardlake is what the Tudors would call 'crookback”, which makes the casting of Hughes – who has a condition called radial dyplasia – perfect sense.
In one of his soliloquies, Shardlake tells us: “While others are noted for their... something, I am noted for my gait. Well it is I, and I embrace it. It is my disguise.”
He's great in the role too – understated, determined, indefatigable, a sort of Tudor Columbo.
And while the action is, for the most part, pretty grim, there are some lighter moments, particularly in the dialogue.
When Barak arrives at Shardlake's lodgings, the lawyer's housekeeper Joan (Kimberley Nixon) tells the lawyer: “There's a distracting codpiece at the door.”
The Tudor setting could be a gimmick to hide inadequacies in the drama, but here it melds with the central detective story to make for a satisfyingly different murder mystery.
So while you might think the Tudor period – much like Anne Boleyn herself – has been done to death, Shardlake shows there is enough about it to keep us interested.