Avoiding effort

There is a lovely German word called "urlaubsreif". It means "ripe for vacation", and that is exactly what I am. I'm one week from my blissfully long Swedish vacation, and I feel like one of those policemen in detective stories who are a few days from retirement, but still have to take on a final big and nasty murder investigation. Business has been slack for a while, but now, typically, the wheels have started spinning again. I catch myself humming "At the End of The Day" from Les Mis. At least it's not "Look Down", or the entirely un-Les Mis-related "We Gotta Get Out Of This Place", so there's still some way to go before I start smashing the office furniture.

It's not just work, either. Everything feels exhausting, even TV. Should I blame the World Cup, which has got me used to watching TV without having to follow any plot whatsoever? Or the summer weather? Or is it just sheer laziness? Anyway, I can't even be bothered to watch a recorded "Tudors" episode, let alone Gaskell's "North and South" (or John Jakes's "North and South" for that matter - too long!).

"The Tudors" has itself to blame, in part. It's getting increasingly obvious that nothing in Henry's later life really matches the Boleyn story as far as juicy drama is concerned. Well, except perhaps the disastrous marriage to Catherine Howard, and that's ages away. Meanwhile, you're left to ponder such things as: does this series have a pro-Catholic bias? Consider the evidence. The characters are described roughly in the following manner:

Catherine of Aragon Loving, loyal, popular, suffering with dignity: all in all a pearl among women.

Anne Boleyn Slut. Didn't sleep with her brother, but that's really all that can be said for her.

Cardinal Wolsey Corrupt. Should not have tried to box through that divorce. But as he's played by Sam Neill, the audience sides with him anyway.

The sainted More (That's how we "Daughter of Time" readers think of him, in an ironic, non-complimentary way) Honest and upright. The king's one true friend who could not bring himself to compromise his religious beliefs. Aaah, you break my heart.

Thomas Cromwell Ruthless persecutor of innocent li'l old monks. Takes bribes too.

Bishop Cranmer A coward. Yes, that's the-hand-that-recanted-first-in-the-fire-Cranmer. Nowhere to be seen in series 3, by the way: a bit odd, surely?

Charles Brandon, duke of Suffolk A tormented soul - he didn't want to kill all those women and children, honest. He only did it because mean old Cromwell and the king made him. This is the same character who behaved like a proper swine in series one, bedding Buckingham's daughter out of spite etc.

Mary Tudor Put-upon, innocent young girl, quite pretty, friendly with Elizabeth in spite of everything. Honestly, the series seems to ask, after all she's gone through, who can blame her for finally setting fire to a Protestant or two?

Jane Seymour Unfailingly sweet. OK, she married a man who had his previous wife put to death to make himself available. So what?

Robert Aske Noble, touching, unwilling to fight, entirely justified.

Cromwell's chum with the patch over one eye Well, the patch says it all really. Sleeps around. Threatens to smash lady Mary's skull in.

At this point I might hear some complaints along the lines of: "Oh, come on, you've already blogged about The Tudors. Couldn't you try something a little more intellectually challenging? An essay on Florence Dombey whose picture you've filched? Even more Ancient Rome?" Sorry, no. Can't be bothered.