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Original poster

...to find Wolf Hall really hard going

211 replies

catslave · 23/01/2015 09:49

I like a period drama, really I do - but I'm sorry to say that Wolf Hall was incredibly dull. For starters: hopping about all over the place in time, miserable, one of history's most interesting characters - Anne Boleyn - was a spoilt cow with an 'Allo 'Allo accent...

Nothing was explained properly, either, apart form the blindingly obvious. Loads of shots of Cromwell's dad being a wrong'un, in case you missed it the first 20 times, then 'Oh, I need to be an MP again' (Cromwell). Eh? When were you an MP the first time?

I 'did' the Tudors at A-level 20 years ago, so my memory of the period is ok, but the specifics are fuzzy, and there's no way I'd remember the ins and outs of Thomas Cromwell's parliamentary career. Argh! I've cancelled series link... Or is it just me?

OP posts:
MuddhaOfSuburbia · 23/01/2015 14:21

re lots of thomases

I read recently (I think) that one in every two boys was called Thomas at the time

that's GOT to be bollocks, hasn't it?

it makes me think of Dr Seuss' Too Many Daves

HolyTerror · 23/01/2015 14:32

Don't think so, Muddha, though don't know about that exact statistic - there was just a much smaller pool of names then. Look how many Katherines/Catherines Henry 8 was married to! And two Annes.

It is one of the difficult things about writing a historical novel, though. (I just wrote one that is also based on real lives (but 20thc) and because I wanted to respect known facts, was stuck with the fact that my protagonist and one of her close friends had the same name, and that another major character and her mother had names that differed by only one letter. I just had to work harder to make it obvious who was who.)

lucysnowe · 23/01/2015 14:33

I am the other way round and kept on imagining Flop saying 'What was it, a FUCKING accident??' to Bing Blush

I really enjoyed it but it did make me think how much this particular period of history has been done over and over again recently. I mean we never get any dramas about Queen Anne, or Maltilda, or the various Georges
/misses the point completely

HolyTerror · 23/01/2015 14:38

Derailing, but you have my favourite username on Mn, lucysnowe, and you are clearly the reason I wasn't able to bag it myself and had to be GinevraFanshawe aeons back...

Sonoma · 23/01/2015 14:50

Loved the books, loved the plays, loving the series so far. Great cast.

MrsPeterQuill · 23/01/2015 14:52

lucysnowe I was thinking the same t'other day about how the Tudors have been done to death.

Would love to see a better depiction of the War of the Roses that isn't that White Queen shite. Or maybe a drama about Eleanor of Aquitane.

MuddhaOfSuburbia · 23/01/2015 14:56

yy lots and lots of Tudors. Tbh if Mantell hadn't done this, I'd be all pfft

I'd like to see some Stuarts, me

nicer hair

or French revolutionaries

MuddhaOfSuburbia · 23/01/2015 14:58

would LOVE to know what/who/when you're writing about, HolyTerror

[nosy]

herecomesthsun · 23/01/2015 15:20

aah at last, people who also hear the dog-rabbit thing out of Bing every time Mark Rylance opens his mouth! West country accent all wrong, and every time Cromwell says "mmmhmm" I hear flop. all wrong physically too.

scotchmincepie · 23/01/2015 15:23

Loved the books and the way they were written - the opaqueness of them seemed to suit the time of double dealing and lying. Loved the plays.

Was really looking forward to this and I did enjoy it but not as much - but possibly because I've got a cold and was feeling a bit miserable and watching with a teenager who DID NOT want to be watching it. I think I'll rewatch on my own...

PTAblues · 23/01/2015 15:44

I hated the book- Mantel's style grated on me and her obvious crush Cromwell was just ick. The programme was slightly better but would have been entirely incomprehensible to anyone who didn't know Cromwell's story as they were back and forth through time without indicating this. All the actors looked the same age and wore the same clothes so it was even more confusing.
I agree with it being too dark. At first I thought it was meant to be dusk but then it carried on.

emotionsecho · 23/01/2015 15:58

Have yet to watch it, but I didn't like the book so I am expecting not to be totally enamoured with this, hopefully I'll be surprised.

Love Tudor history, but find Hilary Mantel's writing style awful and agree with PTAblues about her crush/hero worship of Cromwell. The phsycobabble in the book was utterly tedious and there was far too much of it. Cromwell is such an interesting character but I feel Hilary's drooling over him diminishes him rather than bring him to the readers as the fascinating person he no doubt was.

PuppyMonkey · 23/01/2015 16:02

Oh thank goodness can I join this? Thought I was the only one.

Didn't think it was awful or anything, just totally meh and dull and confusing. The flashbacks were really badly done, so you were sitting thinking eh is this 8 years before? Or now? Or some other time?

I've read first book but not finished second - but I struggled with who everyone wAs. Those two lads in the house - i vaguely recall them from the books but the viewer was just expected to know wtf they were doing there.

I'll watch it next time. I suspect the viewing figures won't be nearly as high.

MehsMum · 23/01/2015 16:50

Ah, SinglePringle, then you'd love the backdrops to the Keira Knightley 'Pride and Prejudice': her in-reduced-circumstances family have furniture in the background which is 40-60 years out of date....

(I told you I was a pedant...)

lucysnowe · 23/01/2015 17:50

Aw thanks HolyTerror, GinevraFanshawe is an awesome name tho!

I think it must be the flood of Thomases that made Mantel do her weird stylistic thing whereby Cromwell was always 'him' or 'he' and never mentioned by name...

LifeIsBetterInFlipFlops · 23/01/2015 17:59

I really loved it, and I like mindless TV also!

grocklebox · 23/01/2015 18:00

I haven't read the book but it wasn't hard to follow. Do you need every single thing explaining? He's talking about becoming an mp again, why do you need to know instantly about the last time? It was all explained in time with his meeting with Henry.

hackmum · 23/01/2015 18:05

I found the books were hard work, but repaid effort.

I had been really looking forward to this for ages, but I'm not sure. I think historical drama is very difficult to do because let's face it, none of us were there, so how do we know if it was accurate or not? They apparently spent a lot of time getting the costumes right (e..g no velcro) but I do wonder if that was at the expense of something more fundamental.

Re: the flashbacks. They should have adopted the Broadchurch approach where you can tell it's the past because David Tennant doesn't have a beard. They all look the same in this.

awaynboilyurheid · 23/01/2015 18:47

Have said this before but whilst I enjoyed the books, I found this a bit dull, and the actor playing Cromwell miscast. People were supposed to be afraid not only of his tongue but also physically afraid of him. He was described being strong and stocky built , this actor didn't look like he could fight his way out a paper bag. There was no sense of how by force of personality he got to be the cardinals man then the Kings, he just looked a bit weak really, was so looking forward to it too, will continue to watch and hope his character springs into life eventually, we can only hope.

Original poster
catslave · 23/01/2015 20:56

Well, I might give the second episode a go after all... FYI, (after starting this all off), Downton Abbey makes my teeth itch, so I was seriously hoping for something with a bit more weight. It was just all the jumping about in time, as much as anything else. Also, I love Mark Rylance, but his accent sometimes seemed to slip into something Northern, didn't it? The candlelight didn't bother me. Perhaps the setting on my tv are too high :)

OP posts:
WizardOfToss · 23/01/2015 22:18

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

FoxgloveFairy · 23/01/2015 23:32

I love the history of the Tudor era, and loved The Tudors, glamourised and rampantly inaccurate in places as it was. Hopefully, will like Wolf Hall when it hits Australia.

AnneofCheese · 24/01/2015 00:43

wizard you were reading the same books and watching the same programme as me. It was so bloody good. Fantastic, subtle, and didn't pander. Just set off and expected you to keep up - very refreshing.

AscoyneDAscoyne · 24/01/2015 02:02

It took a few minutes to get used to the pacing but loved it once I did. Re the Anne Boyelyn accent, I just assumed that she was taking the piss out of Cromwell for being a bit of a France lover having ivied there and fought with them, particularly as France was very unpopular at the time and this would be a possible weak spot for him.
That was just my interpretation though having not read the books

AscoyneDAscoyne · 24/01/2015 02:05

*Gah - lived not ivied

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