"The Tudors is about King Henry the 8th and his court, the young King Henry the 8th and his court.  Rather than the popular image of the fat and very, very ill Henry the 8th which one often sees in portraits.  It's focusing on the younger version of him.  His friends, his court and the beginning of what we know as Henry the 8th.  It's following that original journey.

My character is Charles Brandon.  He is a confidant of the King, best friend.  They grew up together due to the fact King Henry's father and Charles Brandon's father were also close.  Charles Brandon's father was King Henry's father standard bearer at the Battle of Bosworth.  King Henry and Charles grew up together so they're very close friends.  Even though Charles had no official title.  He was a mister.  Which is how Charles Brandon starts in the story - he starts as Mister Brandon.  They are very very close, he's the only person who can actually effectively compete with Henry and beat him.  With no fair repercussion.

Marrying a Princess

He really can't keep his d**k in his pants.  He just - excuse me.  He loves women, he chases them all over the place. As one of the lines go - one of Margaret's fantastic lines - he can love for a year, a month, a day, an hour and then that's it.  You'll love fantastically for that period of time and then you'll move on.

Charles has pushed it too far.  Normally he had pretty much free reign wherever he went in court.  He could say whatever he wanted to whomever he wanted because he was King Henry's best mate.  No one could touch him.  But with Margaret, he just went too far.  Because he marries Margaret without asking Henry, which is the most important thing.  He marries into the royal family without asking Henry and also had potential for causing a political disaster.

Competing with a King

Young, vibrant, athletic, fit.  He really was this man of incredible power.  What the image of what a king would be. Charles and him are very similar.  Played sport all the time, hunting, jousting.  A great camaraderie.  Sort of like a rugby team or something.  You're always competing with each other.  But it's on a far more deadly scale when it comes to jousting, for example.  Which was a blood sport.  You could quite easily die - charging each other on enormous horses with huge amounts of armor on and a great big stick in your hand.  You really have to be careful because you don't want to knock the king off.  You're threatening the royal line.  You're basically making a personal attack on the king.  So everyone deliberately lost to him.

Royal Tennis

It's quite a fun game, actually.  When the tutor came up to train us, it was interesting - it's like a cross between squash and tennis.  And it's a fantastic sport.  You're playing off the walls and everything.  And the whole point is instead of playing tennis where you're supposed to get it past someone, the whole point is to play it so it bounces on the ground, then off the back wall and then as close as possible to the back wall and then that's a point.  And you have to - they can only get a point if they beat that mark close to the wall or something.  It's quite complicated to begin with but a very fun sport.  It's not about power at all, it's about control and spin, lots and lots of backspin on every shot.

A King's Best Friend

You couldn't ask for a better place to be the best friend of a king.  Because you haven't got the responsibility of the King and you're untouchable.  And people always want to get into your favor.  To oust other people out of court because you've got the kings ear.