John Bates
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GregThe Devil’s Whore finished last night. I won’t say what happened in case anyone hasn’t seen it yet.
Overall, the series was pretty good, but I do think it could have been longer, with more emphasis given to the causes of the Civil War. The outdoor scenes were bit odd because the series was filmed in South Africa, and the scenery did look like, well, South Africa. It was very nice, but slightly jarring when one expected to see rolling English countryside. Also, the lead actress, Andrea Riseborough, bore a really strong resemblance to a friend of mine, and it took me until halfway through the second episode to stop thinking ‘wow, she really looks like Jen’. I suppose I can’t blame the producers for that though, they can’t be expected to only cast actors who don’t resemble people I know. Oh, and the CGI Devil, what was that about?! It seemed unnecessary.
On the plus side, the storyline did revolve around characters such as John Lilburne and Edward Sexby who made a significant contribution to our history, but who have subsequently almost disappeared from it. Hopefully, this will encourage people to find out more about them. The depiction of Cromwell was well balanced, he tends to be portrayed as either a demon or a saint, when obviously he must have been somewhere in the middle*. He was over-shadowed by the star of the series though. John Simm, completely stole the show as Edward Sexby – I didn’t even recognise him at first – a very different character to the one he played in Life on Mars.
Overall, The Devils Whore is well worth watching, and, it’s success might encourage commissioning editors to produce a longer, more in-depth series about the period.
The video above is not connected with the programme, but it seemed to fit.
* He’s not exactly my favourite person, alive or dead, so typing that neutral statement was difficult. If I’m being honest, he was a warty toss pot.
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