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.

I adore this book - it's about the Pilgrimage of Grace, which is ep 3's rebellion

I read The Man On The Donkey after a recommendation here too @StanfreyPock and I now in turn recommend it all the time! It is perfection, the only thing I’ve enjoyed as much as Wolf Hall.

It is excellent, really it is. Mark Rylance lends it a hypnotic quality. Daniel Lewis is terrifying when he changes from his charming hail-fellow-well-persona to the petrifying bully that he is.

Interesting to hear that Lydia Leonard was Anne in the RSC version. I think she is probably far closer to what the real Anne looked like than Claire Foy was.

I've only just realised LL is playing Jane Rochford, I think she's brilliant. I've not been watching it because I loathe Mark Rylance as Cromwell but for LL's sake i might dip in.

She was amazing as Anne in the plays.

In the books I seem to remember Eustache and Cromwell being proper friends. They knew when they were talking as friends and when they were talking in their roles. In the show it is a much spikier relationship.

a lot of illness in tonight's episode
you really wouldn't want to be ill then
did Cromwell have malaria?

“Sweating Sickness” - it killed his wife and daughters years earlier, as well as Henry VIII’s older brother Arthur.

It is still a mystery as to where it came from and the cause, there were a number of outbreaks then it was never heard of again.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweating_sickness

I am still struggling with the multiplicity of Thomases. Cromwell himself calls lots of characters by their first name. Towards the end of the episode , he was sitting at a table with Rafe and one other man who he referred to as Tomas. I can only describe him as having a beard, which isn't much help. IMDB doesn't help as the pictures are of actors sans Elizabethan look. Anyone know which Thomas this was??

Cramner.
He was burnt at the stake by Mary. Beforehand he had signed a document refuting his Protestant beliefs, and, when dying, he held that hand out into the fire.
I thought this episode much better. You get a real sense of Cromwell losing ground.
Some things actually are better than the books. For instance, I saw Mary Tudor developing into a strong character, not a victim, and not particularly sympathetic to Cromwell.

..and the delicate balance of power in Europe is very well shown. We are so used to looking at our history purely as British History that it is refreshing to see the balance of power at the time.
Cranmer was married, so treading a difficult road himself.

Oh , I had cancelled him out in my thinking.

The danger was very clear at times:
"You would take up arms against the King?"
"I never said that"......

Does anyone know why Jenneke didn't stay with him?

I think, in the book (as it's more or less purely fictional) that she had to decide where was safer for a non-catholic.
Ironically Antwerp suffered terribly under the Spanish in what was probably her lifetime.

Thanks

I agree this episode was much better. You really get a sense of the walls closing in on Cromwell. His many enemies are sensing an opportunity, and his favour with the king is slipping. Without that, he is doomed. And he knows it.

I know he was talking to Thomas Wyatt at one point, could it be him? I can’t recall who was in that scene.

No, Wyatt is one Thomas I did recognise!

Yes I'm sure it's malaria, in the books he says it recurrs now and then, and that he "caught it in Italy".

Not sweating sickness as other poster has suggested.

That was Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who worked with Cromwell to get the Bible printed in English with the King's authority.

I'll accept two people telling me this but this guy wasn't in religious garb and was relatively young?

Given that he and Cromwell were the joint architects of the Reformation in Britain, and the nature of the conversation, it must have been him.
I'm not sure what you think he should have been wearing for a chat with a friend. A mitre?

Well, he wasn’t executed until not long before Mary’s death. I didn’t in fact see this episode, and I don’t know how close we are to Cromwell’s own execution in the compressed timeline of the series (has Edward been born? Is Jane dead?), but assuming we’re in the last few years of TC’s life, Cranmer would be in his 40s. Unless we’re in a flashback?

I have no idea .

I'm not stupid (I think) - I do know who Cranmer is.I have read the books. I don't remember that they were talking about religion as I was distractedly wondering who he was- just that they were sat at a table by a fire with Rafe. Who I do know, recognise and helpfully isn't called Thomas! It seems to be a feature of Cromwell's style that he uses first names in this rather patrician way.

Let alone them mainly being called Thomas, large numbers of them look very interchangeable - at least the dark bearded ones.

Perhaps, as well as subtitles (which I always have on) they should flash up the names of the characters.
Not being sarcastic, just an attempt at humour.