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

"Must cuddle kittens. Make him educate daughters. Emphasise Anne Boleyn being cow"

Countess - I think I luffs you.x

The final episode was spine chilling! The nimble executioner pulling off (excuse the description ) the distraction technique was brilliantly done.
I wish the series was longer too, I think it was too summarised iykwim.
I'm halfway through the second book, love it.

I abidolutely KWYM.0

Delurking to recommend another book.
This biography of Bess of Hardwick, a contemporary of Elizabeth 1st.

Perhaps that sense of the last episode being so quick to canter through events was deliberate on the scriptwriters part. So we shared in Anne's bewilderment at the speed of her downfall?

On the subject of making people love historical villians, has anyone read Josephine Tey's Daughter of Time? Maybe Richard III wasn't a Bad One too?

Yes, definitely!

re wishing it had been longer

they could have done it more or less page by page, like they did with Brideshead Revisited

we'd be watching it till Christmas

imagine THAT

I didn't realise the series was both books, makes it even more disappointing that there were only 6 episodes. Can't think of a series I've enjoyed more.

I really liked the scene where they come for AB and she's at the table. The goblets and dishes are removed, the embroidered cloths, several servants in their livery clearing away and then at the end, all she has is a bare wooden table.

I watched the final episode last night. SO, SO good.

Also, was it just me, but in ep4, I actually started to think MR as TC was... erm... a bit sexy?

That's a popular opinion Comito. Hence my Wolf Hall nickname (coined by someone else) - MR gives the part a knickerful of menace...

Oh good, I was wondering if it was some weird niche crush I'd suddenly developed.

Love the nickname!

LordC, that same book makes me ill disposed to Thomas More...

Muddha I'd love it!

Has anyone else seen the stage versions of Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies? I saw them last year and it was really interesting to see the differences between the books, stage and TV versions.

I thought the interrogation scenes lost something in the TV version though they were still powerful. The whole thing in the book and the plays when you realise he's exacting revenge for Wolsey is spine-chilling.

Also v disappoint that they conflated both books into six episodes.

A few thoughts......
who was the man wearing an eye patch next to TC at AB's execution?

Where was Francis Bryant(sp) in all this ? Didn't HE wear an eye patch but was one of the accused and executed along with Boleyn, Brereton, Norris, Weston and Smeaton?

Where was Thomas Wyatt in all this? In the book he was accused but TC got him off.

Just watched it! Well!

Bryan was mentioned on screen but was not executed in history.

Apparently Brereton was neary 50 at the time. The actor didn't look it!

I thought eye patch man was a Seymour?

Surely a SeeLess? Badoom tish!

I'll get my coat.

According to Alison Weir, Bryan was questioned by Cromwell but was sufficiently disaffected by Anne to go free.

Alison Weir was very explicit on him educating his daughters too, so it's not like Mantel plucked that out of her arse along with the kittens.

I see your charm bracelet posted below, and raise you this bracelet, which I recently bought from Etsy. I love it! etsy.me/1gQLS14

Yeah I know BoF but it's what you put in and what you leave out, isn't it? I mean, Norfolk's daughter was also highly educated but she doesn't mention that.... And Princesses Mary and Elizabeth were too, obviously, but no-one ever goes, 'Oh, Henry VIII was so modern!'
I like that she did it, because it's good to take away the assumption that it's only Thomas More who did, but it is interesting the way it works as a shorthand for 'good guy'.

Was at the National Portrait Gallery yesterday and saw all those cushions in the shop with Anne Boleyn, Katharine Parr etc. Decided I probably couldn't live with them adorning my sofa.

Also looked at the copy of the Holbein portrait of Thomas Cromwell. Given that portraits in those days tended to flatter rather than offer a realistic depiction, he still looked really horrible: overweight, unattractive and rather menacing in appearance. If he looked like that in the portrait, what on earth did he look like in real life? Not like Mark "soulful eyes" Rylance, I'm guessing.