ROYAL AUTOPSY RETURNS TO SKY HISTORY FOR SECOND SERIES
The Sky HISTORY Original, ROYAL AUTOPSY returns for a second series hosted by Professor Alice Roberts. The four new 60-minute episodes, premiere exclusively on Sky HISTORY from Tuesday 2nd April.
The second series follows the success of the first two-parter which explored the deaths of Queen Elizabeth I and Charles II and is Sky HISTORY’s top rated original commission since 2018. Series one is available on Sky HISTORY VOD and catch-up services.
This latest edition of Royal Autopsy sees anatomist and biological anthropologist Professor Alice Roberts rejoin Home Office Pathologist Dr Brett Lockyer to lead a unique investigation into the cause of death of four more British Monarchs: King George IV, Mary Tudor, King Henry IV and Queen Anne.
King George IV [aka ‘Prinny’ or The Prince Regent] was the son of George III and King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 1820-1830, best known for his period as Regent from 1811. He stepped in for his father to become one of Britain’s most obese and ridiculed monarchs.
Mary Tudor [aka ‘Bloody Mary’] was the daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon and succeeded her brother Edward VI to become Queen of England from 1553-1558. As Queen, Mary attempted to row back the Protestant Reformation. She was desperate for a child, to help secure England’s return to Catholicism, and experienced phantom pregnancies.
King Henry IV [aka Henry Bolingbroke] was King of England from 1399-1413. Best known for usurping and murdering his nephew (Richard II) to take the crown, he suffered from a mysterious skin condition during the later years of his reign.
Queen Anne was the last of the Stuart line and Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland from 1702, up until the Act of Union in 1707 where she then became Queen of Great Britain and Ireland until 1714. She endured no fewer than 17 pregnancies, all of which sadly ended with miscarriages, stillbirths, or childhood death, before having to surrender the throne to the Hanoverians. Queen Anne was famously played by Olivia Colman in 2018’s ‘The Favourite’.
Through state-of-the-art reconstruction based on contemporaneous medical records, each episode sees Professor Alice Roberts and Dr Brett Lockyer conduct autopsy simulations on each of the monarchs using a blend of prosthetic bodies, actors, toxicology testing and forensic analysis. Their findings, together with Professor Roberts’ interpretation of historical eyewitness accounts, shed startling new light on their final days.
With a combination of historical evidence and modern medical expertise, Professor Roberts and Dr Lockyer uncover the secrets and explore the theories regarding the causes behind the monarchs’ deaths centuries ago.
Using eyewitness accounts sourced from the time of their deaths, the final dying days of these historic figures are brought to life in vivid detail with premium scripted dramatic scenes, starring Tim Hudson (Sky Force, Doctor Who) as King George IV, Olivia Hallinan (Larkrise to Candleford, Father Brown) as Mary Tudor, Gareth David-Lloyd (Torchwood, Albert: The Power behind Victoria) as King Henry IV, and Carli Norris (Eastenders, Holby City) as Queen Anne.
Professor Alice Roberts said: “I’m beyond thrilled that Royal Autopsy is back for a second series and four new investigations. It’s such a unique historical approach to examine, not just the key events of a monarch’s reign, but actually how they lived and suffered as mere mortals. I’m very proud to be a part of it.”
The series was commissioned, and executive produced by Dan Korn, VP of Programming at A+E Networks UK, with Diana Carter, Commissioning Editor and Head of Talent at A+E Networks UK.
Royal Autopsy is a Phoenix Television and GroupM Motion Entertainment production. Executive producers are Miles Jarvis and Jaimi West for Phoenix and Melanie Darlaston for GroupM Motion Entertainment. The series is created, written, and directed by Paul Olding. Royal Autopsy is distributed internationally by Abacus Media Rights.
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Royal Autopsy premieres on Sky HISTORY on Tuesday 2nd April.