It’s hard to believe it’s been 10 years since Wolf Hall showed up on PBS and wowed fans of historical TV series about Tudor life. Now, Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light shows up with six episodes of Thomas Cromwell’s rise and fall. Mark Rylance returns as the master manipulator and schemer–he arranged Anne Boleyn’s beheading–but can’t control Henry VIII (Damian Lewis).
The series pays meticulous attention to detail, including costumes, sets, and the portrayal of Tudor life. The series is based on Hilary Mantel’s award-winning novels, with this second season adapting her final book in the trilogy, The Mirror and The Light. Mantel died in 2022. This series picks up after Anne Boleyn’s death and follows the last four years of Thomas Cromwell’s life.
Diane and I have been waiting for this series but the Pandemic and other issues delayed it until now. Can’t wait to watch this!
Cool. I’ve been telling myself I want to read at least some of Hilary Mantel’s originals first, but it’s yet another thing on way-back burners.
Todd, Diane and I loved WOLF HALL on PBS 10 years ago. We can’t wait for tonight’s first episode! Hilary Mantel was a brilliant writer!
Jackie was not a big fan of the original. We’ve seen Mark Rylance on Broadway several times and he was always brilliant.
Jeff, the reviews of this new WOLF HALL: THE MIRROR AND THE LIGHT have been very positive. Mark Rylance is a fabulous actor!
I hope it’s worth the wait. There’s an article on the Deadline website about how much the production was hampered by severe budget cuts. Apparently the British TV business is in financial freewall which is sad since they created “prestige TV” decades before American cable and streamers got in on the act.
Byron, the Pandemic and strikes hobbled the TV and movie industry. It will be years before they recover.
I should give it a try. MASTERPIECE came through in the old days with “Bleak House” and others. For that matter, CBS and NBC used to air fairly good TV-movies based on the classics by Dumas and Scott. That was in the ’80s, before moronic junk like SURVIVOR and DEAL OR NO DEAL ISLAND became their mainstays.
The latter are cheap as dirt. Of course, in the ’80s, their ancestors were THE BATTLE OF THE NETWORK STARS, etc. PBS and before them NET did some good work, if usually on a budget, as well as importing British and other productions, going back to the turn of the ’60s. The NTA Film Network’s THE PLAY OF THE WEEK was pretty solid as well, for its couple of seasons, as the bigger nets gave up on PLAYHOUSE 90 and such.
Fred, SURVIVOR and DEAL OR NO DEAL ISLAND are unscripted shows that are cheap to make. Something like WOLF HALL is going to cost a lot more. The economics of TV produce a lot of budget productions with low quality…but they make money.
Today’s good broadcast includes WILL TRENT, THE CLEANING LADY, DOC, I’ll still watch ELSPETH and ANIMAL CONTROL, et al., along with PBS drama and documentary anthos.
Todd, Diane and I regularly watch ELSPETH and HIGH POTENTIAL.