Henry VIII as a tyrant and a hottie

We’re twice told, for example, that the English ambassador to the Vatican assassinated in the opening credits was the king’s uncle — so that's why Henry is steamed. It seems two times too many. More generally, too many scenes involve people processing in and out of rooms and explaining who they are.

That’s perhaps unavoidable in a story line that, between all the lusting, seeks to explain the 1520s world of Henry VIII — a man desperate to gain not only a male heir, but also to project English power in continental Europe.

This means much conniving in a three-way power struggle with Francis I of France and Charles V of Spain, the nephew of Henry’s child-poor wife, Queen Catherine. In Henry’s court, the real power broker is Cardinal Thomas Wolsey (played in an expert dry delivery by Sam Neill) whose own aspiration to become grotesquely wealthy — and, eventually, the pope — influences Henry’s strategic alliances.

Confused? After a while, you can drop the name tags. “The Tudors” gradually gains dramatic traction as cast members either lose their heads or bed down for the long soap-opera haul.

And the plot finds its convincing center once Anne Boleyn — played with inspiration by newcomer Natalie Dormer — enters Henry’s life in the third episode.

Dormer’s bewitching face (“Those eyes are like dark hooks for the soul,” says her court-diplomat father) can shift from angel to arch manipulator with a simple head turn or cocked brow. Just two years out of London acting school, Dormer, 23, was signed immediately after an incendiary audition with Rhys Meyers.

“Chemistry was of obvious significance and importance. And Jonny and I just hit it off. Within five minutes of meeting him, we were doing love scenes. I mean, this is the actor’s life!” Dormer said, covering her face in mock embarrassment.

Dormer says she read four biographies of Anne Boleyn to get into her character and is thrilled to be playing “such a firecracker — one of the first emancipated, independent young girls in British history.”

Set against such youthful exuberance is Neill, 59, who spends much of “The Tudors” telling the king how to play his cards — but ends up losing everything because he can’t persuade the pope to annul Henry’s marriage to Catherine.

Showtime didn’t provide advance copies of the final four episodes, but everyone on-set concedes it ends with Wolsey’s humiliating removal as chief government minister in 1529 — and England on the precipice of Reformation. Henry’s marriage to Boleyn is still four years off, at least, according to the history books.

“I hope I can make it to the end of Season Two without losing my head. I intend to survive as long as I can,” Dormer said.

No such luck for Neill. “Everybody else is coming back presumably to do the second series, touch wood,” Neill said in his trademark delivery, equal parts dry and wry. “But I won’t be back because I’m dead.”

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