Making historical shows or movies is not easy, especially when it comes to eras with few known details. Therefore, shows like The Last Kingdom, can be forgiven for the historical inaccuracies that they have depicted. Similarly, there have been many inaccuracies in movies that depict US presidents, or the lives of notorious gangsters. While these inaccuracies seem like neglect from the director’s end; more often than not, these further dramatic requirements of the show saving it from becoming monotonous, or “too historical.”
Television shows find maintaining historical accuracy the hardest, owing to the simple fact that unlike movies, they have to consistently portray the time period over a greater period of individual episodes. Amongst the many historically accurate and least accurate shows that exist on television, there exists a special batch of shows that despite their inaccuracies are extremely fun to watch. These shows make for great television, and therefore, their true value does not lie in the accuracy of the time period they depict, but in the story they bring forward to the audience.
Bridgerton
Bridgerton, the immensely popular and enjoyable Netflix show, stays true to history in depicting the dark-skin lineage of Queen Charlotte, her love-marriage to King George III, and the mental health issues that King George III suffered from, forcing his son to act as the regent of England, which led to the age being dubbed as The Regency Era.
The show’s creator Chris Van Dusen, however, in an interview with The Daily Express called Bridgeton to be a marriage between “history and fantasy.” In that vein, while there were no real Bridgertons in Regency-era England, historical inaccuracies include the use of tight corsets, despite the availability of in-vogue ‘stays’, as well as the inclusion of modern fashion by Ellen Mirojnick, the show’s costume designer.
The Great
The Great is a show that is full of historical inaccuracies, including the instantaneous marriage between Peter and Catherine, the coup taking place in the same year as that of the marriage, the character of Leo Voronsky, Peter being a formidable antagonist, as well as the invention of certain characters to represent a generalized idea of the Russian Court during the Catherinian Era and the Golden Age of Russia.
However, these historical inaccuracies are quite intentional, as the show’s creator in an interview with Vulture describes many parts in The Great to have been made up and it not being a history lesson but simply a show. With great performances from talented actors like Pheobe Fox, Adam Godley, Nicholas Hoult, and Ella Fanning, these historical discrepancies hardly seem to bother.
Da Vinci’s Demons
Da Vinci’s Demons touts itself as a historical fantasy fiction, and it is exactly that.
Starting from the fact that there weren’t any Sons of Mithras or Book of Leaves, Da Vinci’s Demons goes as far as to suggest that Leonardo Da Vinci actually met Vlad The Impaler, that Vlad had a brother named Gedik Ahmet Pasha, or that the Medici’s employed him as a covert spy working against Rome and the Pope. The presence of vampires further blurs the concepts of history, but in essence, these are the traits that make this show an amazing watch.
Wolf Hall
King Henry VIII is a king most-known for the courageous decision of making the Church of England independent from Vatican influence, as well as the beheading of his wife Anne Boleyn on charges of treason, witchcraft, and incest, and that of his chief minister Thomas Cromwell on charges of heresy and treason.
The BBC miniseries Wolf Hall adapted from the eponymous book by Hilary Mantel, depicts this time period to great accuracy and is, therefore, also extremely loved. However, it fails to capture certain avenues of this pre-Elizabethan era including the inclusion of leather boots by costume designer Joanna Eatwell, an accessory that was reserved for outdoor activity like combat or hunting and not for tending to court business or for dancing.
The Alienist
The Alienist featuring Luke Evans, Daniel Bruhl, and Dakota Fanning is a great crime-thriller series that is set in 1896. The show tries to embed its fictional story into the events that transpired during this time period by highlighting the stark economic disparity of the Gilded Age. It also included characters such as JP Morgan and Theodore Roosevelt.
However, it also showcases loopholes in the plot that don’t ascribe to 1896 New York. These include the inclusion of Jack the Ripper style murders happening years after they had originally happened, the fact that these murders consisted of male prostitutes as opposed to Ripper’s female victims, and the use of criminal profiling and fingerprint identification, both of which were relatively newfound and cutting edge sciences during 1896.
Freud
Freud, The Series, a popular show on Netflix, exploring the early years of the Austrian neurologist, tends to focus more on the fictional than the real.
The dates that Freud is set in, his addiction to cocaine, and his association with Joseph Breuer seem to be accurate from a historical perspective. However, facts such as him meeting Fleur Salome, a character inspired by the real-life Lou Andreas-Salome during the 1880s, and Freud using his psychoanalytic abilities to solve crime and explore spiritualism seem completely invented to further the storyline.
The Borgias
Created by Neil Jordan, The Borgias is an entertaining historical drama that depicts the machinations of The Borgias, a Spanish family trying to take control of Italy during the Renaissance period.
The show, although extremely enjoyable is ripe with historical inaccuracies, the most staggering of which has to be the employment of Niccolo Machiavelli as an advisor to the Medicis. Apart from the fact that Machiavelli never had such influence, power, or position, the fact that he was staunchly against the Medicis who had also tortured and imprisoned him, makes this assertion absolutely absurd.
The Tudors
The Tudors, a Showtime series that revolves around the influential House of Tudor and the life of the controversial Henry VIII; although glamorous in its depiction lacks strongly when it comes to historical accuracy.
The most evident of this has to be the ridiculous handsomeness of Henry VIII, who was rather broad in the beam, as opposed to the chiseled Jonathan Rhys Meyers. Furthermore, he married Anne Boleyn at the age of forty, much different from the Henry VIII who marries Anne in The Tudors. The latter seems to be a late-twenty something.
Vikings
Vikings, the hit History Channel series, takes huge liberties when it comes to historical facts. Starting from the fact that Ragnar Lodbrok (if he even existed) was 25 years senior to Rollo, the first ruler of Normandy, and that they were never brothers; Vikings goes on to assert that St. Cuthbert died during the Sack of Lindisfarne and that Lindisfarne was the first Viking attack on England – both of which are untrue.
Furthermore, Athelstan’s crucifixion by Christians, a practice that ended during the 4th century, the fact that the Vikings refer to themselves as Vikings, wear tight fitted and grey leathered-tunics, as opposed to the colorful clothes that history depicts, or sport partially shaved hairstyles in a freezing Scandinavia seems far from the truth.
Peaky Blinders
Peaky Blinders is arguably one of the best shows on television to date. However, it cannot be denied that it has many historical inaccuracies, including the fact that Winston Churchill never really interacted with the Birmingham street gang, or held the position of Home Secretary in 1919, the year the first meeting takes place.
Other inaccuracies include the involvement of the gang in the acquisition of guns for the IRA, Jessie Eden being a prominent activist holding an office of power in the trade union in 1926, the names of the original gang members, their years of operation, or the existence of companies like Cadbury in Birmingham during the turn of the 20th century.
