...to find Wolf Hall really hard going

[catslave]

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?

Good Lord, Anne Boleyn really is a bitch in this, isn't she?

I understand what HM was trying to do, but I'd love to see a drama from her POV.

I love Mark Rylance , I think he's a fantastic actor.

Loved both the books.
Fell asleep in the second half of the RSC play (having looked forward to it for six months).
Fell asleep in first ten minutes of episode 2 of the TV version.

Not sure what the moral of this story is...apart from going back to work is knackering.

People who think Wolf Hall is slow need to watch more Tarkovsky. It'll seem positively zipping after that.

I have watched the first three episodes of Wolf Hall now and am enjoying it, much more than the books, maybe that is to do with the quality of the actors and that the script has culled a lot of the unnecessary padding from the books.

I have nearly finished Bring Up The Bodies but still don't like Hilary Mantel's style of writing, I found some of it laughable to be honest.

I adore the books, don't think they need to be a single word shorter, and think Mantel is a genuinely brilliantly gifted writer. They're so delicately drawn, funny and dry.

Am enjoying the TV show –I think all the performances are faultless – but do rather miss the interior life of Cromwell and the quiet drollery the books have, which obviously you can't so easily get across on screen.

I quite like the 'magical thinking' in Philippa G's books about Elizabeth of York and her family too. I agree that it was probably one way in which women, denied a lot of 'real' power or agency, could have, or at least make people feel they had, more power than they did.

And didn't the Waters family actually put it about as fact that they were descended from Melusina, a water goddess? I suppose there's an argument to be had as to whether they genuinely believed it or it was just family propaganda, but that kind of thinking was not at all unusual.

HM seems to have received "national treasure " status on the basis of a book(s) that are very middle brow IMO and not particularly well written. I stuck it out with Wolf Hall for about 150 pages but was completely unengaged & kept thinking it was written in a style suitable for a film script, which is often the way with writers who have an eye on the main chance. I really don't like/am offended by her interpretation of A Bolyn (I know there are differing schools of thought) . Careful, poised, controlling, yes; a bitch, no. I was much affected by reading her letters which are on display at Hever Castle. (Written after Henry cast her off.) Her desperation is palpable and affecting.
As to the TV series, enjoyable, slow, watchable, but I missed last week and won't bother to catch up as it moves so slow. At least you get the story without HM's execrable prose.

Dull, slow and a tad Blackadder at times....

The majority of this series is actually Bring Up The Bodies which was much more readable than Wolf Hall. I found Wolf Hall a drag so I gave up mid-way. However dh loved it with a passion. That is why I pursued Bring Up the Bodies. I criticised Wolf Hall for its tendency to produce conversations which didn't determine who was speaking. I remember Michael Portillo criticising it for the same reason on the BBC Newsnight review. However, Hilary Mantel altered this approach for the second book. The tv adaptation is pure class and makes other historical productions seem like mere romps. I would say, however, that it is likely to be appreciated to a greater extent if the books have been read. Partypigeon, you are of the same opinion as my husband. He relishes her writing and I must say I appreciated it in Bring up the Bodies.

Absolutely love it. I could watch Mark Rylance all day. When his wife and children die it was so moving and you can see that pain carried with him.

More poignant to learn that his own daughter also died so it must have been unbearably painful to act those scenes.

I think the series has picked up and is really good. Although I do have to slightly push to the back of my mind comments from another thread about Blackadder and people in doublet and hose standing in courtyards firing arrows....
As for the novels, I enjoyed WH but didn't really enjoy BUTB very much. I think it's because I read WH on a holiday before I had children and got through it quickly. The 'he said' stuff is genuinely confusing at times and an editor should have had a word with her.
A relative met Mantel at a festival. They were an organiser not a particularly interested fan and she was very rude to my relative who was conveying her from one venue to another. My relative is polite and not pushy but thought she was fairly unpleasant.