well bemoan: A rotten twig upon so high a tree Hath slipped thy hold, and thou art dead and gone. In popular media Smeaton was portrayed by Gary Bond in the 1969 costume dramatic film Anne of the Thousand Days. In it, Smeaton is depicted as being tortured by Cromwell's henchmen. In 1971, Michael Osborne portrayed Smeaton in the second episode of The Six Wives of Henry VIII. One scene shows the knotted rope being twisted onto his eyes. The character of Mark Smeaton appeared in the second season of Showtime's The Tudors and was portrayed by David Alpay. In the series, he is depicted as having a sexual relationship with Anne's brother, George Boleyn. It is believed that Smeaton being portrayed as homosexual may have been based on the theories of Retha Warnicke, who argued that Smeaton and George Boleyn had been sexually intimate. Smeaton is fleshed out as a character in the novels Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel, and the TV miniseries adaptation Wolf Hall, in which he is portrayed by Max Fowler. Told from Cromwell's point of view, the story shows Smeaton intimidated and manipulated into a confession rather than being tortured. He and the other four accused of adultery with Queen Anne are executed as the culmination of a careful vendetta against them by Cromwell, in revenge for their production of a mocking dramatisation of the downfall of Cardinal Wolsey shortly after his death. In the Royal Shakespeare Company plays that Michael Poulton adapted from Hilary Mantel's books, also called "Wolf Hall" and "Bring Up The Bodies" (though the latter was changed to "Wolf Hall Part 2" when the plays transferred from England to New York), Joey Batey played Mark Smeaton. Smeaton appears in Gaetano Donizetti's opera Anna Bolena, in which the character is a trouser role assigned to a contralto. Jack Benny portrayed Smeaton in an extended fantasy sequence in The Jack Benny Program television show (S:7 E:6) entitled "Jack locked in the Tower of London" which originally aired 2 December 1956. Chris Clynes portrayed Smeaton in the BBC documentary drama The Six Queens of Henry VIII (S:1 E:2) entitled "Anne Boleyn" which originally aired in 2016. References Bibliography 1536 deaths People executed under the Tudors for treason against England Executed English people Year of birth uncertain Prisoners in the Tower of London Anne Boleyn People executed by Tudor England