Henry VIII will be skipped over in a new BBC history programme chronicling Britain over 1,500 years due to complaints the 16th-century ruler was a terrible person.
According to a newspaper outlet, the eight-part series, called Art That Made Us, plans to investigate tumultuous periods of British history through the lens of art, literature, music and designs but Henry VIII, despite heading up the bloody English Reformation of 1534, will not get a look in.
BBC producers invited Jeremy Deller, the Turner Prize-winning artist, to discuss a painting of Henry VIII, called Field of the Cloth of Gold, illustrating a gaudy meeting between the English monarch and Francis I of France in 1520.
However, Jeremy Deller declined the invitation to talk about the painting and the English ruler it represents, criticising Henry VIII as one of the most outstanding scumbags in British culture.
Jeremy Deller said that he hated him and that he was an iconoclast fundamentalist, and was just awful.
The dissolution of the monastic system under Henry VIII, a property grab that saw monks, nuns and friars turfed out of monasteries with all of their wealth being funnelled to the Crown, was a principal reason given by Jeremy Deller for his hatred of the historical figure.
According to the producers of the BBC Two series, Russell Barnes, the team gave up on Henry VIII after receiving Jeremy Deller’s flat out refusal.
Russell Barnes said they believed perhaps Field of the Cloth of Gold would be a truly fascinating picture to look at, but they just couldn’t find an artist who actually wanted to engage with that.
Mr Deller will instead appear on the series to discuss the work of William Morris, the influential British textile designer of the Victorian era.
Speaking about Morris’ wallpaper designs, Jeremy Deller said that they were the great landscape artworks of the 19th century. It wasn’t Turner and Constable, it was those which were then replicated throughout people’s homes throughout the world.
BBC Two’s new series Art That Made Us will start in the 5th century, looking at an Anglo Saxon figurine, the Lindisfarne Gospels and Beowulf.
The last instalment of the eight series show will cover from 1958 to the present day, during which everything from Irvine Welsh’s film Trainspotting to Stormzy’s 2019 performance at Glastonbury was highlighted for discussion.
Henry VIII was one of the most influential men in history, and we should live in an all-inclusive environment where no one is left out, including Hitler, and really, the only reason Henry wasn’t read was that they couldn’t find someone to speak about this particular painting, and it has actually been massively over sensationalised.
The programme is about art history, which is the paintings themselves rather than the subject within the paintings, and I can’t believe that they couldn’t find an expert to talk about it, and not just about Henry but his wives as well because this is was a fascinating period of English artistic history and it shouldn’t be overlooked.
Two of the best periods in British history is the Victorian and Tudor period, and here’s one person who decides the latter won’t feature, but he decided that he didn’t like Henry VIII, therefore he wasn’t going to be talked about.
Perhaps we should apologise to our children on behalf of him? Stuff happened in the past, and if talking about Henry VIII offends anyone they simply don’t have to watch it, but they could at least let others view it that want to.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 