Wolf Hall - The Mirror and the Light

[virgocatlover]

Series 2 is confirmed to start Sunday 10th November.

Almost 10 years after the first series, I'm excited to see the third and final novel brought to life.

Just watching episode one on iPlayer now. Can't quite find the gravitas in it yet as every time Mark Rylance speaks I hear The BFG.

Just finished episode 2 and could watch all over again!

"You need not reply in verse." 😄

I wish they put this on earlier. The music keeps lulling me to sleep...

Would he really have called mary Tudor Mary?
Tbh I was a bit bored by this episode, plus the constant warbling in the background gets a bit tedious.
And Jane Seymour's black mother and sister (though we're not supposed to notice).

Oh my goodness, episode 2 was hard to watch at the end.

This has very little of the lightness and humour that was threaded amongst the more serious matter of Wolf Hall (though the “you need not reply in verse” scene was a welcome exception).

The audiobook is wonderful: I agree. Ben N
Miles is just the best (he made me really fancy TC😬)

Everyone who is not called Thomas is called Margaret...

It was brilliant.

The scene at the end was so powerful. Dorothea was not going to be bought.

That scene was hilarious. As was Henry’s ever-expanding turban.

I don’t remember Cromwell in the novel being so devastated after the visit to Dorothea?

I also thought it wasn't as good as the first episode.

Too much of the Wolsey stuff, and Cromwell crying was out of character.

As for Cromwell addressing Mary Tudor as just 'Mary', that seemed unlikely to me too. I don't think anyone called anyone by their first name in those days unless they were family or close friends. It would have been 'My Lady'.

I did like fat Henry in his Turkish costume though. Damien Lewis is just so good in the role.

I'm wondering about the timeline a little. Jame Seymour isn't even 'with child' yet. They have a lot to cover in 4 episodes.

The stage production with Ben Miles was excellent. When I went Hilary Mantel was in the audience which was very cool.

Oh wow. Very, very cool!

It's getting harder to watch, you can feel the heaviness of his post 😟

I'm loving it. You hang on every word. Cos there's not many of them!

I love the depiction of Jane Seymour. So different from the passive, insipid character we usually see.

Here, she's outwardly meek and modest, but you can tell she's actually quite shrewd and knows exactly how to play the game in the brutal Tudor court. This is exactly how Mantel wrote her, and the actress is doing a really good job of portraying her.

Late to this
have I missed pages about episode 1?

I thought the brilliant bits were brilliant - having the axe ready before the enemy awakes, the astonishingly casual disclosure of the promise to Catherine...scenes with Mary were annoying. Too much pomp at the start. Not the pace of series 1 but will see how it goes.

the rooms and costumes are astonishingly brilliant.

Gosh that was a darker episode. Really enjoying it and feeling somewhat anxious about watching Cromwell’s fall.

In between, I’ve been watching the Glenda Jackson version of Elizabeth on iplayer. Stagey, occasional acorn antiques moments but magnificent.

@IcedPurple Hear hear about Lucy Worsley, I can't bear her either on TV or radio. She did a series called Lady Killers about historic women criminals, and seemed to have no empathy with these real women she was talking about.

I too found the bits with Mary a bit slow. But it's relevant to his fall isn't it? so that's why those parts are significant. I actually find it quite affecting to see Cromwell crying-so different from
How we've seen him before. I also loved the bit of Brevity when Call Me told Tom Howard that Cromwell had once broken a man's jaw.
Christoph is one of my favourite characters in the book, and I thought he was portrayed very well, though I imagined him younger.

It’s in iPlayer in the morning I believe.

I am a heathen admittedly, but was I the only one watching George Cavendish in the boat with Cromwell who thought, maybe we'd find out what happened on the fishing trip?

I loved it, but you have to concentrate. I recently re-read wolf hall, but I think I'm going to go back to the other books. The detail is sublime.

Husband said the same thing and I did laugh.

For those talking about struggling with the books, the abridged Radio 4 version can be listened to here: archive.org/details/s-01-e-03-the-mirror-the-light-omnib/S01E01+The+Mirror+%26+The+Light+%5BOmnib.mp3