Did you know that Disney are adapting the Shardlake books for TV?

[StrychnineInTheSandwiches]

Oh, I’m excited! This series has been crying out to be adapted for the screen.

And now all we have to do is hope they don’t fuck it up.

What they really should do is involve me in the casting, so they don’t end up casting Channing Tatum or some other muscle bound American hunk as Matthew. And maybe give me script supervisory role too so I can ensure they don’t make too many alterations to the stories.

I'm now glad that the mooted BBC/Kenneth Branagh version never made it into production. I find him quite irritating.

deadline.com/2023/01/disney-adapt-cj-sansom-shardlake-tudor-detective-novels-1235211032/

That's really not how I imagined Ruairi!

Ratcliff
The next novel, Ratcliff, is due out in 2023 and will be set in 1552, just before Edward VI passes, and Sansom has said he plans further adventures post-1558 and Queen Elizabeth I's reign

More news I was unaware of! How exciting!

How exciting!
Does that mean his cancer is no longer terminal? It must at least be progressing more slowly if he is planning further books.

That's good casting for Jack Barak, going by his character in Derry Girls - confident, able to look after himself, attractive, lovable rogue.

I'm not at all sure about Sean Bean as Cromwell. His presence is a bit too physical, I think, and (sorry Sean) maybe not cerebral enough.
Also the guy playing Barak. I don't know him but he looks a bit goofy.

I think Cromwell does need someone with a strong, physical presence.

He was fiercely intelligent but was from a working class background and had a tough upbringing. As a young man, he had been a soldier in Europe.

I'm open to Sean Bean as Cromwell but it seems a bit lazy. That man gets cast in everything set from the 18th c and back.

@Coxspurplepippin I'm with you - Anton Lesser is an astonishingly good actor. I could watch/listen to him in anything.

Fair point on the physicality!
But I don't think Sean Bean conveys that much intelligence.

I have Anton Lesser down for the role of Sir Richard Rich. I think he'd be great swishing about in luxurious black velvet capes being powerful and evil.

He has played some really deep thinking characters and he probably got this off the back of Ned Stark

Exactly he was a working man who climbed throught the ranks. A role Bean is notorious for!

I don't know Game of Thrones. He just isn't my idea of Crowell.

Mark Rylance is the very opposite of what I picture Cromwell having looked like but he was believable in the role. Maybe Sean will come up trumps.

I can't remember which poster first mentioned Anton Lesser but yes, yes, yes.

I'm not even too fussed about which role. One of my all time favourite actors.
I'm glad that he does so much radio drama because I love his voice.

Mark Rylance was an amazing Cromwell, but he didn’t convey the physicality that you get from the famous portrait. Cromwell was clearly an extremely intelligent man, that’s obvious, but he also looked like someone whose pint you would not wish to spill. I think Sean Bean would get that across very well.

This sounds amazing

Love the books

Absolutely all this.

I'm so glad they have picked a disabled actor!

I really don't understand everyone on here hoping for Toby Jones - he's mid 50s and Shardlake is only 35 in the first book!

Unfortunately there isn't going to be an 8th book called Ratcliffe. There have been rumours all over the Internet of this book supposedly coming out for about 3 years now with absolutely zilch info coming from the publishers etc.

Isn't the writer very ill?

Terminal cancer

Has to be Mark Rylance if that’s his name the one from Wolf Hall

Sansom's dieing? Oh no, I'm so sorry ♥️

Oh, yes please!