The thought of another TV series about Henry VIII is about as welcome as those seemingly endless trailers for forthcoming shows that appear in between every BBC programme.

We've been there, seen that and probably worn the T-shirt as far as the merry, much-married monarch is concerned. Surely there can't be anything fresh to say about his life and times.

The makers of The Tudors, the new Emmy-nominated series that the BBC has bought for screening, clearly thought otherwise.

They didn't let the facts get in the way of a good story. Apparently, and I'm sure historical experts will have no hesitation in pointing it out, liberties have been taken with character names, relationships, physical appearance, and the timing of events.

Filmed in Ireland, The Tudors is the most expensive series made by US cable channel, Showtime. It was such a ratings hit that ten more episodes have been ordered, so it's a good job Henry was such a prolific womaniser and politician.

The second season will document the marriage of Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn, the birth of daughter Elizabeth, the Reformation and the beheading of Boleyn. And that still leaves plenty of material over for several more series.

Jonathan Rhys Meyers steps into the royal shoes following the likes of Ray Winstone (who still sounded more like a London gangster than a royal), Keith Michell, Jared Harris and Homer Simpson. They played Henry on TV, while screen impersonators have included Charles Laughton (as Oscar-winner in 1933), Richard Burton, Robert Shaw and, of course, Sid James in Carry On Henry.

The opening series of The Tudors covers the decade leading to the king's first divorce and promises a Henry VIII as never seen before - "young, sexy, intriguing, romantic and infinitely more complex than he's usually depicted", according to the press blurb.

Writer Michael Hirst previously rewrote, sorry interpreted, history in the feature film Elizabeth, with Cate Blanchett as the Virgin Queen. She'll shortly be seen reprising the role in the sequel, The Golden Age.

"The main brief was to make it history with a contemporary resonance, so it doesn't feel like history," he explains.

"But the thing which makes the story appealing for audiences is that the central situation is not locked in history per se. Here's a guy who wants to divorce his wife for a younger woman, he's running a big company and there are two other companies he has to compete with. His emotions and the emotions of everyone else are first and foremost human and universal."

Contemporary in tone doesn't necessarily make a great story, he continues. The Tudors, in the first instance, is about an exciting and dynamic historical figure.

"The other key element of the series, alongside the reality, was a young king, surrounded by young people, who can do what he wants," he explains.

"What would it be like if you were 25 years old and had complete power, how would you exercise it? I imagined someone who would recognise no barriers, never recognise a limit... to his power, to his intellect, to his appetites, to his physical abilities."

The usual image of a bitter and bloated Henry was banned. In comes Rhys Meyers, star of Bend It Like Beckham, Velvet Goldmine and Mission: Impossible 3.

His portrait of Henry is very different from the "big, fat, red-haired" image, he says. "But it's very accurate to the historical record, it's a more attractive and physical Henry that I'm playing. Henry spent many years, when he was young, sleeping in his father's (King Henry VII) bed and his father would tell him everything about life in court. Who was scheming, how to behave, what to do and not do. So he was very well schooled.

"He was also very well read, although he didn't have to read himself. Others would read out loud to him, so he was very familiar with cutting edge thinking and the writing of the time."

Rhys Meyers sees Henry as ahead of his time and someone who left a great legacy. "He was a modernist in many senses, even more so than he realised," says the actor.

"He founded the Church of England which Her Majesty the Queen still heads today. He introduced divorce into the equation of marriage. And in his effort to have a son, he gave us Elizabeth I, a kind of founding feminist and one of the most amazing Queens the world has ever known."

The Tudors begins on BBC2 on October 5