Return of the King
King Henry VIII reigned for 38 years. Young and handsome, his Court was the most colourful and extravagant in Europe. Yet this glamorous exterior partly disguised his unpredictable and savagely ruthless nature. His obsession to father a legitimate male heir led him through six marriages, to make himself Supreme Head of the English Church and to cut down those who stood in his way.
From double BAFTA nominated writer Director John Walsh, Monarch is part fact, part fiction and unfolds around one night when the injured ruler arrives at a manor house closed for the season. Henry is without the power and control of his palace and is vulnerable from those around him, and from his own sanity. Henry left England financially and morally bankrupt; his collection of enemies his only constant. Even today there is a question mark surrounding his burial and possible exhumation. TP McKenna plays Henry; after starring alongside Richard Burton's Henry VIII in the epic Anne of a Thousand Days, Charge of the Light Brigade, Straw Dogs; and with Jean Marsh (Upstairs Downstairs, Willow and Fatherland) playing an amalgamation of his ex-wives. Monarch unfolds on one night in the year of Henry's death, 1547.
The film has been painstaking remastered from the original 35mm colour camera negative which was recently discovered in a film vault after nearly 20 years and is now presented in full High Definition for the first time.
DVD Extras:
- Monarch Memories – cast and crew look back at the shoot
- Restoring a King – The restoration process with before and after comparisons
- Unseen TP McKenna on set interview from 1996
