The Laughing Cavalier

24/05/2026

I may have just made my favourite opening meme for a video ever.

17/05/2026

Upcoming Tudor Dramas for 2026(ish) in a Nutshell, premieres at 6pm UK Time:

Timestamps:00:00 - Opening01:13 - Introduction01:42 - Housekeeping/King & Conqueror (2025)03:20 - The General State of Tudor Dramas05:37 - Missing in Action:...

05/05/2026

Oh boy, I do love clickbait in the morning!

(TL;DR: Some people used AI or something to try and say a different one of Holbein's sketches is Anne Boleyn based on some very dodgy methodology. I'm with the Art Historians on rejecting this one)

05/04/2026

I think my next video might get me cancelled:

04/04/2026

What do we think of the thumbnail for the next video?

02/04/2026

Well, we had a bit of a furore yesterday. In case you missed it, a fair few newspapers and others published articles about 'Majesty', the ITV Drama about Elizabeth I. The claims going around are that ITV are looking for a transgender actor for Elizabeth. In summary (and links will be in the comments):

- The first outlet to mention this was 'The Sun' (a gossipy tabloid) and its article was published at 11:59 on the 31st March. I did wonder if it was just an April Fool's joke and they published it a minute early, but usually if it is one they will say later on and this has not happened, not to mention multiple other outlets picked up on it, making me think this was meant to be taken seriously.
- Most of the stuff in the article isn't really new and was mentioned in the original announcement back in 2024 (where a certain YouTuber did a video on last year may I mention...) Certainly the language of Elizabeth hiding "a profound secret" and that it would be a "contemporary-feeling alternate history about how three outsiders try to stay alive while hiding a secret that, if discovered, would rock England to its foundations". The only "new" stuff here is that the article claims ITV "bosses" are looking for a trans actor for the role and that ITV have not responded when asked to comment.
- The article also says it is due to start filming this summer, which seems to be true based on what I have seen announced from research. We have no idea if anyone has been cast yet, only that in the original announcement they said it would be revealed just before filming started, which we now know is to be in the summer in Wales.
- Since then I have come across this floating around online (please see the attached images after the first one). Again, since yesterday was the 1st April, I have to be careful but, doing a bit of googling does turn up some casting calls (again, links in description). These were also put out a week ago so, yep, not an April Fool's joke. They are definitely looking for a transgender individual who is about 16 or so to play a young Elizabeth.

In summary... I am sort of glad I waited to record that upcoming Tudor Drama video and am also now thinking "Oh God, what the hell is on the horizon?" The first picture is my reaction to the news:

31/03/2026

A Very useful post that will not cause confusion and delay:

Important news, I will soon be deleting all of my videos and rebranding my channel to my one true love...Thomas the Tank Engine and will talk about nothing b...

31/03/2026

Some Titanic news for a change. Some of the original plans and drawings for the Titanic (and her sisters) are being made publicly available. I haven't looked into this too deeply, so I don't know how much of this is actually "new" or if they are just doing the journalistic thing of exaggerating it. As far as I am aware, most of the main plans have been available for some time. Nevertheless, still interesting I think. It is apparently part of a more wider project where they are cataloguing many other ships Harland & Wolff built:

Titanic was the largest and most technically advanced ship of her day but sank on her maiden voyage.

19/03/2026

Old newspapers have much wisdom. It turns out 15 cups a tea a day causes you to kill yourself. Definitely the tea that did this:

13/03/2026

Anyone have £30,000 floating around?

Tudor monarch’s 487-year-old message to Francis I about a ‘pillaged’ merchant ship goes up for sale