When Craig Lightoller was diagnosed with dementia last year, he made a bucket list. The first item on it was to bring the Tudor court back to life.
The 52-year-old from Croydon has portrayed Henry VIII as part of the Tudor Players for two years, and has now brought the rest of the dynasty together to work on ‘Tudors Re-Imaged’ – a collection of photographic portraits made to resemble Old Master paintings.
Six wives, three royal children, two queens, a young Henry VIII and a photographer have all given up their time for the project, shot at a studio in a small Norfolk town in January. Craig hopes the portraits will eventually be exhibited at venues like Hampton Court Palace, if he can raise enough money for them to be printed, hand-varnished and framed.
“I want to leave a legacy behind when I go,” said Craig, a student nursing associate at the University of Roehampton.
“I’d like to leave this to a house and hope they’d protect it and keep it going. But I think it’s also really important because the Tudors never seem to die down, and what I’m trying to do is give a modern face to the people we’ve read about in the history books. It’s something I’m very passionate about.”
Historical re-enactment – or living history – began in Europe in the 1890s, and it’s thought there are around 20,000 active re-enactors in the UK today. Participants dress in period clothes, engage in activities from their chosen period and even recreate battles and festivals.
Craig’s own interest in Tudor history began while growing up near Bradgate Park in Leicester, the birthplace of Lady Jane Grey, who was queen of England for nine days in 1553.
He began re-enacting after hosting a banquet for his 50th birthday, where he dressed in Tudor costume and was recognised as Henry VIII by his guests.
“All I kept hearing was ‘oi, Henry!’” Craig said. “So I thought I must look like him, there must be something in this.”
Growing up near Bradgate Park also sparked an interest in history for Jasmine Cooper, who portrays Anne Boleyn in the Tudors Re-Imaged project, although she became a re-enactor after watching TV show The Tudors.
Jasmine, 25, said: “I became absolutely besotted with Natalie Dormer’s character of Anne Boleyn.”
“I see a lot of myself in Anne, the good and the bad, she’s known for being quite opinionated and getting in trouble for what she says like myself.
“I can’t really explain it, but I just look up to her as a role model, she was so inspirational and so different to how people were back then.”
Before she met Craig, Jasmine had portrayed Anne Boleyn’s sister-in-law Jane Rochford at Tudor banquets at Hatfield House, Elizabeth I’s childhood home. When Craig messaged her on Facebook to ask if she’d do a shoot with him at the Guildhall in Leicester, she reluctantly agreed.
“It’s not something I’d usually do, but I fell in love with the man as soon as I met him,” she said, adding that she hopes the project will help change how young people see the Tudors outside the education system.
“It’s literally like EastEnders set 500 years ago, there’s so much drama and interest, it’s fascinating.”
But not every member of the group is such a confident re-enactor. For Becky Evens, who portrays Jane Seymour, the costumes are the main draw.
The 45-year-old from Reading made her own costume as well as her 15-year-old daughter Ivy’s, who plays Henry VIII’s fifth wife Catherine Howard. Becky started sewing costumes for her children when they were little, and made her own Tudor gown because she struggled to find a high-quality costume for herself.
She realised the dress resembled Jane Seymour’s portrait soon after starting it and got in touch with re-enactment groups to have somewhere to wear it.
“It was more about making and wearing the costumes than it was about wanting to re-enact,” Becky said. “I’m not very confident with the whole idea of pretending to be someone else, it takes me right out of my comfort zone.”
But she does feel she has some similarities with Jane, adding: “She was really into sewing, it’s thought she may have taught Henry VIII how to embroider.
“I really like that about her. It doesn’t feel like me in the pictures anymore, it does feel like we’re actually looking at the people we’re supposed to be.”
The quality of the group’s costumes was one thing that stood out to Salli Gainsford, who has been a professional photographer for 15 years and shot the portraits at her studio in Downham Market in Norfolk.
She started her career in equine photography because her daughter rode horses, and would dress up her subjects to accompany the animals before she started working with re-enactors.
She said: “I started buying outfits myself and the re-enactors found me.”
“It’s been wonderful to meet people, learn about their lives and what they do. Some re-enactors really believe they are these people, they live and breathe it.
“I think it’s something they can embrace, that gives them purpose. And everyone needs a bit of purpose, don’t they?”
Salli’s portraits are hand varnished and painted over to give a brushstroke effect to make them resemble the work of the Old Masters, the most prominent European Renaissance artists – including Hans Holbein, who painted some of the most well-known portraits of the Tudors.
But she also uses artificial intelligence to create her backgrounds, a modern twist on a familiar cast of characters, but a method she says has proved controversial among other photographers.
“I think AI is a huge asset and photographers should embrace it more,” she said. “It’s incredible for this kind of thing, like creating a background of the Spanish Armada sailing away from a clifftop for Queen Elizabeth’s portrait. I don’t see any other way of producing a gallery like this.”
Salli has worked with Craig three times, first reaching out to him on Facebook after seeing a picture of him as Henry VIII.
She said: “I hope we can deliver some astounding portraits for people to ponder over, to be thoughtful about each image and each character. I’ve actually never come across anybody that’s as into something as Craig is, and I think if you’ve got such a love and passion for something, you can make anything work.”
