Wolf Hall discussion continuation thread

[AKnickerfulOfMenace]

Continuing the thread from Telly Addicts, just in time for episode 4

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/telly_addicts/2288038-Damian-Lewis-fans-line-up-for-Wolf-Hall-tonight?msgid=52500336#52500336

I loved the grey scarf in the wind before I stopped looking

and Henry baring his teeth

he's always been my Least Favourite Monarch. DL was extra awful, hats off to him I shouted you CUNT at the screen a good few times last night

was it Trills upthread, who described Anne as 'brittle'?

it's stuck in my head ever since. Imo Claire Foy stole the whole thing. She was brilliant

...I do hope that a lot of the stand out actors get a fuckload of work on the back of this

especially Anton Lesser, who I note from Wikipedia had been in Ambridge Extra (not even the Archers!) for a couple of months (a COUPLE??)

I think that even if he had got bored of Jane emotionally/sexually, he would have just taken a new mistress (or gone back to one of the old ones) rather than trying to have her replaced as a wife. He couldn't do away with her as a wife without it impinging on his son - not because Edward needed a mother or anything soppy like that, but to discredit her would be to discredit his heir.

Also, from 1536 onwards he seems to have become less sexually active, so I can't imagine him having a grand passion for another woman the way he had for Anne.

It might be quite stressful being Jane, though, in that you'd have the Howards and other enemies of the Seymours sniffing round all the time, and you'd know that if anything happened to Edward you'd be vulnerable.

Unless she had been able to not only stay alive but provide him with more boys, in which case she'd be fine.

If only then had known that the gender of a child depends on the male chromosome...

Actually, having said that, the Howards made various attempts to ally with the Seymours, and no doubt if Jane had been alive and fertile for longer they would have been even keener. So perhaps there would have been a Seymour-Howard axis controlling court

Yes magimedi I thought diabetes as well, particularly whilst reading that brilliant article that Frankeland linked to that said his eyesight was failing as well.

What is 'the french way' mentioned earlier.

I assumed it was oral

those naughty French

re that last embrace, and the realisation in MR's eyes that he was essentially being cuddled by a massive predator and that, sooner or later, it would be his turn

...do we think the real TC would have had similar?

...or would he have thought himself somehow immune?

Hahahahaaaa I thought they meant kissing!!

< stupidly naive innocent>

I didnt know what to think

Weird that the Seymours weren't in last nights episode at all - we don't get the scene someone mentioned where Jane pipes up 'I don't think a convent would work' as a way of getting rid of AB.

This is where an extra episode would have helped - they definitely telescoped the events of BUTB a bit too much, a shame really.

just watched it. Wow, absolutely blew me away. Astonishing performances from all the leads

Re Henry's health, there is a lot of stuff around about him having a rare genetic disorder. Or diabetes. Also the impact of the jousting accident. All could have contributed to his increasing erratic behaviour. Who knows.

Wonder if Anne's final words were based on any truth? They had her saying something similar in The Other Boleyn Girl.

I've just been reading a couple of excellent blogposts by talented young whippersnapper Conor Byrne:

Was Anne Boleyn a modern woman?
The character assassination of George Boleyn

oh yes, a quick Google suggests they were her words.

Blimey, why not let him have it? Whats' the worst that could happen - she was already about to have her head hacked off.

Because she's still hoping for mercy?

Or possibly she was concerned for her soul? She was a religious woman and upsetting The Man Upstairs would have been a concern. Questioning the King (who was divinely chosen) could be interpreted as questioning God.

The other famous old wives tale about Anne Boleyn that barely got a mention in WH was that she was a witch and had a 6th finger....I guess if Mantel left it out of the book they couldn't use it for the TV show, but all the children's history books about the Tudors I read when I was young had plenty of lurid detail like that.

Well, I just watched episode 5 and have to wait another week for the finale.

Im looking forward to it and have to say this thread has been absolutely riveting for someone who isn't good at history.

Anne would have been very concerned about Elizabeth. Look what she did to Mary. Anne had her declared a bastard (so out of the line of succession) and not allowed to see her mother, even when she was dying.

Imagine what horrors Henry's next wife could have bestowed upon Elizabeth - the child of the treasonous concubine and witch- had been so inclined.