Well, the BBC's fantastic 'Wolf Hall' series has just come to an end (for now) and it just occurred to me that no-one here has commented on it. Usually there's some sort of thread re these great prestigious offerings, but maybe I just missed it.
So what do people feel about it? Screenplay by Peter Straughan, directed by Peter Kominsky, with that brilliantly TV/movie avoiding genius actor Mark Rylance as Thomas Cromwell, and Damian Lewis as Henry VIII.
It's a sort of 'Man for All Seasons' in reverse, with lots of great ethical dilemmas, good production values (but never over the top) based on the Hilary Mantel books. The music is quite minimalistic (I didn't say 'minimalist') by Debbie Wiseman, with some period stuff, the opener is 'Gentle Robin'. Rylance is brilliant in that sort of 'less is more' TV close-up style of acting.
So why no mention? Has it hit the US yet? I know it's scheduled to.
We’re a little over a month away from the US premiere of the highly anticipated Tudor-era series Wolf Hall and PBS has released a new, extended trailer with a ton of heretofore unseen footage from the period drama.
Based on the Booker Prize-winning novels by Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall tells the story of Thomas Cromwell, a blacksmith’s son who rose to greatness in the court of Henry VIII, ultimately becoming one of the most powerful and influential men in England.
Cromwell, among many other things, was one of the primary architects behind the Protestant Reformation in England and helped engineer the dissolution of King Henry’s marriage to Katherine of Aragon so that he might wed his mistress Anne Boleyn.
Tony and Olivier Award-winning actor Mark Rylance plays Cromwell, Homeland’s Damian Lewis plays Henry VIII and Claire Foy plays Anne Boleyn. They’re joined by a rather fantastic array of British talent, including Jonathan Pryce, Jessica Raine, Mark Gatiss, Joanne Whatley and more.
Watch for yourselves below – and spoiler alert, it looks really good. Like, seriously, seriously good.
There’s a lot to take in in this clip – unlike the original BBC trailer and the brief first teaser put out by PBS, there’s a lot more focus on the backstory of Cromwell’s life – possibly a welcome aid to those viewers unfamiliar with it, including the impact of his humble beginnings on his character and the complicated world of court intrigue he found himself embroiled in. Interestingly enough, the implication that Cromwell’s decisions are motivated by a desire for revenge over the fate of Cardinal Wolsey is…perhaps not entirely historically accurate reading of events. But it’s a dramatically interesting interpretation of his behavior, so I’m actually rather interested in seeing that play out onscreen. And of course there’s plenty of scheming on the part of Anne Boleyn, as well as debate about what Henry’s installation of the head of the Church of England might mean.
In all honestly, this looks like a fantastically faithful adaptation of Mantel’s books – though I must confess that on some level I wish they’d held off on making this until the third volume of her trilogy, The Mirror and the Light, was published. As things stand, it seems unlikely this miniseries will tackle the equally dramatic fall of Cromwell, which is so very interesting and one of those bits of the Henry VIII story that don’t get told often enough. (After all, we all know what happens to Anne Boleyn, right?)
The series premieres April 5 on Masterpiece so mark your calendars!
