Thanks so much to Carol-Ann for letting me know about this programme which will be aired on the National Geographic channel in the UK at 9pm on Wednesday 30th November. According to the TV listing, this programme is “A look at the monarch’s life, examining claims of illegitimacy, adultery and even the possibility that she was a man” so I’m wondering if it’s the same as the programme “Secrets of the Virgin Queen” which was aired back in January as that also looked at the various salacious myths which surround Elizabeth I.
Please do let me know if you manage to watch this programme as I don’t get the National Geographic Channel and I’d love to know what the programme says about Elizabeth.
If you’re interested in finding out more about these scandals and myths then please read my article “The Old Myths Regurgitated – The Bisley Boy and More”
Wow this sounds great. Will be setting the recorder for this one! Thanks for the info.
Do you know if this will also be on the National Geographic channel in the US?
I would love to watch this program.
I don’t know, Elizabeth, I’m not sure whether it has already been on in the US.
Elizabeth as a man is something that I can not imagine hahaha
anyway I’d like to see this( the doumentary) ;D
If Elizabeth had been a man, Queen Anne Boelyn would have lived…
I haven’t been aware of it in the US but I don’t watch much TV so….I do hope to see it, though–maybe it will come!
Oh flip.. just read this at 12.30am so I have missed it, hope it will be repeated!
I don’t believe it was aired in the US. But, there is more information on my site. One of Tudor fan pages on FB wrote about what the episode was about. So, feel free to check out my FB page or my actual blogging site. Hope this helps. If it is on the US, please let us know or if I find out, I’ll let you all know. Thanks Tudor fans!!!! Have a good week…
Have never watched so a load of drivel, not to say historically inaccurate trash in my entire life… if you haven’t watched it, DON’T BOTHER !!!! This program should never have even been given airtime!
Saw “Secrets of the Virgin Queen” here in the U.S. on Nat Geo a while ago, way back in June. It was kind of peculiar. I am never one for historic slander and the program did seem to be a bit of, to quote Dee, “Inaccurate trash.” For one thing, the idea that Elizabeth I was a man, was really quite a ludicrous thing to propose and for another, there were just so many ridiculous suppositions made about her, like the “bastard” child she supposedly had with Robert Dudley. The special didn’t so much investigate her as it did investigate the rumors of the queen and the supporters of those rumors, you know, the “evidence” those people claimed supported their theories. The “Elizabeth I was really a man” theory was the weakest, using paintings and her interests in hunting and lack of marriage as evidence, which as we know were interests of many noblewomen as well as men in the Tudor court. As an artist, I found the painting stuff hilarious because any artist will tell you that we all have certain ways of depicting people and every artist has a certain way they depict the reality they see (“style”). I found it far less likely that Elizabeth’s supposed “manly” appearance in some of those portraits was evidence of her being a male than it was of an artist using a certain style or abiding by the queen’s orders to try and uphold the persona of a strong virgin queen. Did I get anything out of this special? Well, it prepared me for my Theory and Practice course that I took this fall term because it enabled me to scrutinize historical pieces and shoot holes through theories by careful analysis. I leave it to you all to watch it and see whether or not it is to your liking.
The National Geographic show that I saw about Elizabeth was total garbage. Just a bunch of rumors and no facts to back them up with. I agree with Dee that it is not work losing about an hour of your life to watch and may cause high blood pressure as you get more and more annoyed at the show.