To think Wolf Hall / Damian Lewis is the best ever portrayal of Henry VIII?

[Bluelane]

Just that really. You can feel the tension, impulsiveness, and danger every time he’s on screen. You can feel the threat that must have felt by those around him at the time, it feels really accurate. Amazing writing / acting, such a contrast to the pantomime villain we often get.

Yes, he’s brilliant, but I have to say I saw a brilliant one at Hampton Court a few years ago. Big, burly, bearded, bristling with ferocious energy, but as he passed he said, ‘Good morrow to you, Madam’ to my Singaporean Sis in law, who was tickled pink!

I don’t think he’s got the physical presence you’d imagine but he makes up for it with his charisma and stage presence. I really rate his performance.

I think this adaptation has been a bit dull, if I’m honest. DL is good, (but the entire cast is good, including roles that were recast since the first ‘season’, like Lydia Leonard as Lady Rochford and Timothy Spall as Norfolk) — think it’s just more difficult adapting this part ofCromwell’s career, without the narrative of the replacement of Katharine by Anne and Anne by Jane, and Wolsey’s downfall. DL seems a bit underused, if anything?

I love the novels, but the two episodes of this iteration of the adaptation I’ve seen (2 and 3) have seemed a bit ‘tracking shot of Cromwell entering a dark room, doffing hat, close up of him saying something to someone with a carefully neutral face, cut to shot of him leaving again’.

I think what I’ve most enjoyed is DL’s giant turban.

I think Ben Willbond's is better

Damian Lewis does very well in the part, but I don't think anyone could better Keith Michell.

Absolutely OP. DL is brilliant as Henry, when he appears on screen you don’t know which version of Henry you are going to get. If it’s the nice version I’m on tenterhooks how long it will last. Such wonderful acting from every single cast member. Hope they get a bafta.

I agree. When it was Jonathan Rhys in The Tudors I found the casting utterly ridiculous.

YANBU

He was a terrifying monster and DL has captured him really well

I was watching with my mum the other evening. We got to the but where Mary bursts into tears and Cromwell embraces her. Mother is not given to insights or empathy but even she exclaimed "God, what an AWFUL time to be a woman!" Can't wait to watch the rest.

And after her portrayal, I'm really feeling history ha done a number on Mary I.

We’ll Im not sure how you can revise Mary’s reputation when so many ‘heretics’ were persecuted and burned at the stake during her brief reign. She had a very sad life but was a religious zealot. I always think the late C J Sansom Shardlake books evoked the fear and confusion of that era better than anything else I’ve ever seen or read.

I think he’s brilliant. Just the right level of charm (you do get the feeling those around him loved him) but then completely unpredictable temper and absolute vengeance against anyone who he feels has wronged him. I can totally see parallels in the likes of Boris, Trump, Putin etc.

And I’m also absolutely transfixed by the prospect of Cromwell on the precipice of either becoming his heir apparent (Henry saying he could appoint Cromwell if he wanted too, rumours of him marrying Mary) but then worrying signs that it’s all about to fall apart- the uprising, the Poles, Norfolk the wife beater and Henry accusing him of always being the one with the bad news. Again so many parallels with real life that one minute you can have the ear of power, the next you’re cast out into obscurity. And he’s so obviously being tormented by the past but then being forced into more and more awful deeds by Henry.

Such a tragedy that Hilary Mantel wasn’t around to write for another 30 years, think of all she could have done.

I do enjoy DL as Henry, but I recently watched Firebrand and thought Jude Law was amazing. Not one for historical accuracy purists but the terrifying unpredictability and surrounding tension, sycophancy and the need to walk on eggshells was so well done...

DL as H8 is superb in this adaptation, the right mercurial, changeable, now on the edge of despotism portrayal. I enjoyed The Tudors, and at times JRM was excellent, but he did lack the sheer physical presence. Keith Michell in the TV version was good, Ray Winston had the bulk but oh dear that accent.
Two versions/portrayals up there with DL’s have got to be Robert Shaw in A Man for All Seasons, and the wonderful Richard Burton in Anne of a Thousand Days. Both these only deal with Henry and Anne Boleyn, so Henry is still fairly young and attractive, the rot really sets in after Jane Seymour.
Hilary Mantel’s books are a simply fabulous retelling from a different perspective of Thomas Cromwell. He is such an interesting man, and along with Henry, reshaped our country greatly in terms of what it was, and what it became. Some of the peripheral characters like Gregory and Richard Cromwell, and Rafe Sadler are worth researching as well. There’s a good biography of Jane Rochford (Anne Boleyn’s sister in law) by Julia Fox.

Agree, especially that you don't know what version of Henry DL will portray from one scene to the next...but LOVE Mark Rylance's performance. Surely he is Hilary Mantel's Cromwell come to life!😍

Interesting. I have just started the Shardlake series. I am on Dark Fire thd second in the series.

I have read all three books in the Wolf Hall series and I do think the adaptation is very very good and beautifully shot

Elizabeth condemned more to death, especially as her reign wore on. I realise it was longer of course. She grew more and more intolerant as she grew more and more paranoid about the threat from Catholic nations in Europe who were so keen to topple her.

We have to look at the Tudors in the context of the historians who came afterwards, who were keen to deify Elizabeth and denounce Mary. Religious zeal wasn't unusual in the sixteenth century.

And the fact does remain that both princesses had extremely precarious existences! They were lucky to survive their early years.

He has the sinister and increasingly unhinged side of Henry perfectly imo

We have to look at the Tudors in the context of the historians who came afterwards, who were keen to deify Elizabeth and denounce Mary. Religious zeal wasn't unusual in the sixteenth century. Interesting to compare the Mantel/BBC representation of Thomas More with this Roman Catholic vew

I like Mark Rylance a lot, and I love the way he's doing this, but Ben Miles at STratford was much more the TC I had in my head from the books. More life, looked like he could have killed a man ... or hugged him.

I've really been enjoying the portrayal of Cromwell - absolutely brilliant.

I don't quite understand the fascination with Henry and that period of history in general. So many dramas focusing on that period.

I watched the first episode and was bored rigid. I take it things get going when Henry arrives on scene?!

Every member of the cast is outstanding but it takes a director as brilliant at Kominsky to wrangle all that talent and ego and get those performances to gel on the small screen.

Whenever I think of Sir Thomas More, I think of the Blackadder quote to the Prince Regent: "Well it is too often the way sir, too late one thinks of what one should have said. Sir Thomas More for example, burned alive for refusing to recant his Catholicism must have been kicking himself as the flames licked higher, and it never occurred to him to say "I recant my Catholicism". 😂

He's obviously "younger" Henry before he became the bloated, immobile hulk and the fact he is still attractive is OK..

Most importantly he's playing a blinder with the personality. The considerable charm of Henry's youth is being overtaken by something much darker, but I think DL has shown that elements of this were always there, even pre head injury.

He's an extraordinary actor.