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 love the programme so far. Love that there is no annoying background music, and that the main focus is on Cromwell.

I remember that ropey scene in The Tudors (one of many, then) where they have Henry humming Greensleeves, nodding, then putting it onto paper.

I need a gable hood

my hair has been lying fallow for a while and now looks like Lesser's More's

that ropey scene in The Tudors (one of many, then) where they have Henry humming Greensleeves, nodding, then putting it onto paper

ROAR

there's a corny biopic of Cole Porter where he hears the clock ticking and then tosses off Night and Day. But that is dead old- Cary Grant is in it

you'd think Great British Telly would have moved on from there

I did love The Tudors...

Poor slightly uncouth Lady Alice didn't get a second thought from her husband, he was too busy enjoying his moment of martyrdom.

I sat through the episode thinking Poor Anne! She thinks she has power, but she doesn't! This won't end well ...

I can't help it, I keep getting scenes from Blackadder flashing into my brain when I'm watching Wolf Hall.

Last night in the Lady Alice scene all I could think about was Lady Farrow begging Blackadder to let her see her husband before he was executed.

You'll be telling me his arm's grown back next.

Quenelle, yes, I think you're right about the gable hood reference. That must be why they're going to town on it, to make it really stand out when Jane does that.

Muddha, you can get a lovely gable hood pattern here.

They were selling off the actual ones they made for the programme with the christening procession the other week but I think they've all gone now - clearly there has been a run on gable hoods. Maybe female hipsters wear them.

Lost you all for a while! Really enjoyed last night's episode.

Can anyone tell me, was Anne's SIL Jane (whatsherface from Call the Midwife) acknowledged as a bit of a cow? My only other frame of reference is Phillipa Gregory who certainly painted her as a scorned, vindictive character, but is that based in fact?

We don't really know an awful lot about Jane Rochford. People paint her as a bitch based on the fact that she gave evidence against her own husband and Anne, and as a bit salacious and creepy based on the fact that she seems to have helped the young Katherine Howard to meet her lover, but there's another view that she was just a bit of a people-pleaser who found it hard to say no to anyone, and that she might have been put under pressure in the interrogation over Anne (no-one is suggesting torture or anything, but it would be a scary situation and you might well agree to say things).

There was a biography of her a few years ago but the main criticism of it that I've seen is that because we know so little, it inevitably falls back on generalising most of the time in a 'as a Tudor woman, Jane would have done this...' sort of way because there isn't enough specific stuff to say.

Quenelle Yes! That would be why the Lady Alice scene felt so familiar!

Thanks Countess, I had forgotten about her involvement with Catherine Howard as well. As you say, hard to know for sure if she was spiteful/liked to play games, or just naive/easy to manipulate.

I loved the gable hoods the women in Principal Cromwell's office were wearing. One woman in particular was wearing a gloriously elaborate example which contrasted fantastically with her rather stark features, facially she resembled one of the Easter Island statues. (I honestly don't mean that in a bitchy way either).

I wonder if Cromwell could have got any one of us to say anything he wanted. Or if some of us would have stood up to him and needed a bit of perjury from Richard Riche to bring us down.

I didn't understand the references by the painter to TC being in love with someone (and forgetting an old, foreign love?) and when he was ill. Is he meant to fancy Jane Seymour or be in love with his SIL who he was with last week? Have forgotten the (fab) book!

Holbein (who seemed like a very jolly sort) was referring to the woman Cromwell fell in love with in Italy (?), the woman in the tapestry reminds him of her. I assumed the new someone else woman referred to his SIL although he does seem to have quite a fancy for Jane Seymour too.

He definitely likes the blondes.

Thanks squish!

Squoosh! Autocorrect grrr

It was an Italian woman he was in love with - from the time when he left the UK a roamed around abroad, before the books really start. I think her name was Anselma & she looks like the woman on the tapestry that Henry gave him. And I think he lived with her in Antwerp - long before he married Liz.

Antwerp is lovely

I do like the idea of everyone shuttling to and fro with IDEAS and stuff

I think I'm a bit too banal for a history club thread

Oops did I admit to liking The Tudors in History Club?

Antwerp would have just loved your ideas Muddha!

first rule of history club:

NO LOLS