England's Forgotten Queen: The Life and Death of Lady Jane Grey

You get fair warning right at the start, "The Tudors were are the most famous dynasty". Hmm, well Victoria was several lengths the most famous monarch, and few people outside the UK have ever heard of the Tudors, Henry VIII, yes, but not the dynasty. Lady Jane Grey "the first Queen of England"? Except in Castor's "She-Wolves: England's Early Queens" gives that title to Empress Maude, so the claim for Jane is contentious at best.

For some reason recent BBC documentaries, especially ones concerning women, have developed a disagreeable habit of 'improving' the facts. If you can't trust the facts quoted in a documentary it becomes worthless.

Another point. If presenters are asking us to look at them for the best part of an hour, I think they should have the courtesy to be reasonably well dressed. A tee shirt and ill-fitting jeans is slob kit. Lucy Worsley (are her co-presenters) are always well turned out, which makes things that much more easy on the eye. It is also important to pick co-presenters who understand the basic rules of TV presentation. If they can't help wildly waving their hands around in conversation, then have them tie them to their belt or something. I got so bad that one lady was waving her hands across the shot of Ms Castor - a low point in BBC documentary production standards.

I watched this by chance as I knew the name Jane Grey but not the story. I did find it interesting but a few things really irritated me along the way and ended up with my 6 star rating. When I caught some 'exaggerations' or stretching of the truths I watched to the end but with way less interest. So what irritated me?

First off the demeanor of how the main characters were shown. Haughty, arrogant, and almost sneering Mary, vacant and expressionally neutral Jane, evil and shifty Duke. Not believable. But perhaps the most egregious was the presenter in jeans and white t-shirt. Rather disrespectful to the other presenters and the intended public audience. The expert in the pin stripe suit would have made a better presenter.