Somehow, it’s been nine years since the first series of the remarkable Wolf Hall.
Based on Hilary Mantel’s books, the BAFTA and Golden Globe award-winning series chronicled the life of Thomas Cromwell.
Henry VIII’s political fixer was played compellingly by Mark Rylance, with the King himself brought to life by Damian Lewis.
However, the first series only took us part of the way into Cromwell’s life, ending with Anne Boleyn’s execution. His story continues and concludes in the forthcoming six-part series Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light.
With the BBC announcing the series’ return as Sunday 10th November at 9pm, they’ve also dropped a teaser…
The trailer shows us Thomas Cromwell (Mark Rylance) navigating the court of King Henry VIII (Damian Lewis). There, he encounters Henry’s new wife, Jane Seymour (Kate Phillips), his daughter Lady Mary (Lilit Lesser), Rafe Sadler (Thomas Brodie-Sangster), Gregory Cromwell (Charlie Rowe), Thomas Wriostheley (Harry Melling), Dorothea (Hannah Khalique-Brown) and Sir Geoffrey Pole (Pip Carter), with flashbacks of Cardinal Wolsey (Jonathan Pryce).
The series also features Timothy Spall as the Duke of Norfolk, Harriet Walter as Lady Margaret Pole, Alex Jennings as Stephen Gardiner, Tom Mothersdale as Richard Riche, Karim Kadjar as Eustache Chapuys, Maisie Richardson-Sellers as Bess Oughtred, Ellie de Lange as Jenneke and Lydia Leonard as Jane Rochford.
Here’s the official word on Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light
May, 1536. Anne Boleyn, Henry’s second wife, and five of her coterie are dead. As the axe drops, Thomas Cromwell emerges from the bloodbath to continue his climb to power and wealth, while his formidable master, Henry, settles to short-lived happiness with his third queen, Jane Seymour.
Cromwell, a man with only his wits to rely on, has no great family to back him, and no private army. Navigating the moral complexities that accompany the exercise of power in this brutal and bloody time, Cromwell is caught between his desire to do what is right and his instinct to survive. But in the wake of Henry VIII having executed his queen, no one is safe.
Despite rebellion at home, traitors plotting abroad and the threat of invasion testing Henry’s regime to breaking point, Cromwell’s robust imagination sees a new country in the mirror of the future. All of England lies at his feet, ripe for innovation and religious reform. But as fortune’s wheel turns, Cromwell’s enemies are gathering in the shadows.
The inevitable question remains: how long can anyone survive under Henry’s cruel and capricious gaze?
Eagerly awaited and years in the making, Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light will trace the final four years of Cromwell’s life, completing his journey from self-made man to the most feared, influential figure of his time. Cromwell is as complex as he is unforgettable: a politician and a fixer, a diplomat and a father, a man who both defied and defined his age.
The series’ co-producers are Playground and Company Pictures for the BBC and MASTERPIECE. Adapted by Peter Straughan, the show is directed by Peter Kosminsky and produced by Lisa Osborne.
You can find the first series of Wolf Hall on BBC iPlayer and check out our reviews here.