It’s all over, bar the shouting. And the screaming. And the executions. There will undoubtedly be a follow-up series, just as soon as Hilary Mantel gets around to finishing off her trilogy. But for now, we’ll just have to settle for six episodes of what has been the most compelling and hypnotic drama we’ve seen … >
History hasn’t always been kind to Cromwell. Opinion shifts quite violently to considering him Henry VIII’s right hand man to a shifty planner of self-interest. As Wolf Hall shows, such changes of opinion happened within Cromwell’s time, too. When it was Henry who suddenly decided that he didn’t like you anymore, Tudor life was lived … >
It wasn’t meant to be like this. When you’re the king of England in 1533, you should be confident in your belief that your throne is appointed by a God who will provide you with a brood of strapping sons to strengthen the family line. When you’re instead presented with a possibly illegitimate daughter and … >
We’re halfway through BBC Two’s six-part series now, and it’s time for Thomas Cromwell (Mark Rylance) to get his Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels on. He’s bursting through doors, slamming people up against the wall, stomping through brothels, threatening to bash Thomas More’s head into the cobbles. It’s not as if Wolf Hall has … >
We’re into the second week, and deeper into the corridors of power of Wolf Hall, as more and more people are beginning to notice that young buck Cromwell, who is attempting to change the opinion of the royal court. Now less Jim Dale in Carry On Columbus, more a young Robert Lindsay, stomping the streets … >
Hilary Mantel’s pair of bestsellers, Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies have been conflated into a new six-part drama for BBC Two. ‘Sumptuous’ is a somewhat overused phrase for these sorts of things, but it’s a fair description of at least this first episode, ‘Three Card Trick’, which introduces us to Thomas Cromwell at … >
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 … >
The final chapter of the acclaimed Wolf Hall sees Mark Rylance return to his role of Thomas Cromwell. The BBC have announced the imminent start of production on a second series of its Tudor drama Wolf Hall. Based on the novels of the late Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light adapts the … >
August tends to be light on fictional telly crimes. Everyone’s planted outside in deckchairs, reading about murders through Ray-Ban filters, rather than indoors watching them. Or that’s the misconception TV schedulers plot under. It means that far the biggest misdemeanour on BBC One this month has been Jim Moir pairing orange with egg on Celebrity … >
“I can’t plead biology. Sex may be an animal pleasure but adultery, I’m discovering, is a human one.” Westminster is a place that has seen many historic speeches, political scandals and let’s be honest, a few extra marital quickies too. It is in these famous halls Yvonne (Emily Watson) meets a confident stranger determined to be … >