Anyone reading my blog will understand that I have a great love, appreciation, and passion for Tudor England.  I can date the start of this passion back exactly to a time in the 1970s when the BBC did a lavish custom drama production of Mark Twain’s ‘The Prince & the Pauper’.  I was never quite sure if it caught my imagination so much because Nicholas Lydhurst (later to go onto fame as the much loved Rodney Trotter) was in the starring role, or if it was because of the story of a prince and a pauper swapping places had me hooked.

To Mark Twain (and Nicholas Lyndhurst!), I offer my thanks for starting me on my life-long passion for Tudor England with its plots, intrigues and scheming that no other period in English history has had since.

I’ve just discovered that the BBC production has been uploaded to YouTube. I’m going to spend the rest of my Thankful Thursday watching it! In YouTube, search for “Prince and the Pauper” and ‘Nicholas Lyndhurst’ to find it.

(My other great love of a particular period in history is for the Great War and the trenches of Flanders-field – but my tales of the Great War will have to wait for another day and another blog.)