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 spotted Thomas B S last year at our local Christmas Emporium shop. Very weird to see him there, and he didn't look much aged from when he was in Christmas perennial Love Actually, which I believe he made when he was about 15 (though his character was supposed to be 12). He must be taking some sort of magical youth elixir surely?

I love Mark Rylance in this role. To me he fits TC perfectly. TC was not tall, described as 'squat' , and he has physicality - he moves quite a few people out of the way. But its his face that makes it for me, the way he can show all emotions through a twitch of an eyebrow or a look in his eye; the stillness in the face of extreme stress ( Henrys privy council when discussing Mary ?)
I have seen Ben Miles on stage - and he is also great, but the limitations of putting on a 2 1/2 hour play from a 38 hour book means that much is lost in the stage version.

The National Portrait Gallery also has the picture of Christina of someplace ( Denmark?), one of the women Henry planned to marry after Jane. But she rejected him and probably saved her head.
'If I had 2 heads, the king of England would have the disposal of one of them' is what Christina of Denmark said. Or something like that.
It's a magical portrait. Interestingly, there is another portrait of her with her sister at Castle Ambras, innsbruck. And she looks extremely ordinary in it. Holbein obviously worked magic.

Keira Knightly was 18 in Love Actually, Thomas B-S was 15 - 3 years age difference, one playing a married woman and the other a school kid!

He was briefly a mercenary in the French army as a youth, everything I've read , not much, states it did not suit him at all.

Are you confusing Cromwells?

This is my view. It misrepresents what society was like in the past - as if England of the Tudor era accepted Black people on the privy council at the time they were on the cusp of involvement in the transatlantic slave trade. Most people get their historical knowledge from film and TV. To portray this racial equality at a time of extreme racial inequality doesn’t sit right with me.

Tbh I doubt I’ll be going to the US any time soon after recent events! but one of the best things about the exhibition here was the drawings of More and also his whole family, for the group portrait that no longer survives. It was particularly heartbreaking to see his wife and his very old father. And his daughters, of course, one of whom bribed a guard to get his severed head off its pole and smuggled it home 😱

They also had the actual drawing Holbein pricked to transfer it to canvas* for the first stages of the portrait painting (the one the Frick now has).

*I think it’s on wood, actually

I have to agree and it also denies Black History is worth telling in its own right.
Very annoying to insert black characters inappropriately and think job done.

IMO it is lazy virtue signalling. There is so much of it about atm. I agree with blind casting where possible, but not in something that is meant to be based on historical facts as far as we know them.

@VoteDappy no, but I'm basing my comments on him in the book. Bought up by a violent father surviving as a mercenary. And also on the performance by Ben Miles at Stratford that had more physicality and menace. I don't think he's supposed to be a thug at all...but to give the impression he could be.

I agree, but your post may be deleted like mine was for expressing the same opinion yesterday.

Mark Rylance will always be Flop off Bing.

Ah, but maybe Flop is TC - that would fit with the theory that Bing is all about hell and purgatory! TC is doomed to spend eternity in purgatory waiting hand and foot on a spoilt toddler (aka Henry VIII).

👹😜

Mine was deleted too. I can't think what was offensive about it.

Also really looking forward to Harriet Walter as Margaret Pole. What brilliant casting.

Gosh, the gabled hoods were unflattering, weren't they? No wonder Anne wore the racy French hood instead.

He’s the BFG for me (but I also think he’s great in this!)

Works for me as a theory!

I missed Sunday night’s episode, and as I’m outside the UK, I have no access to iplayer. Can anyone tell me whether the BBC will repeat episode 1 before episode 2 screens this coming Sunday?

I’ve tried googling, but found nothing, and am desperate to see Harriet Walter as Margaret Pole — HW should be in everything.

@Drom have you thought about getting a VPN so you can watch iPlayer? There are lots that do free trials or “get x months free” out there.

Definitely not the dreamboat

Two images here ( both verified as around 1540) and it’s interesting that Holbeins portrait definitely puts Henry in a better light.
Holbein was good at fudging reality which has been recorded many times and seems to have been his modus operandi, probably why he was so popular.
The other image of Henry at the same time is by an unknown artist. Whilst we can’t verify whether it’s a true likeness we can see a clear difference.

Im not convinced by any of Holbeins portraits.

Just back to cromwell's physicality and the sense of menace he ought to convert...from the 2nd book.

"Wherever they begin, the final impact is the same: if he had a grievance against you, you wouldn’t like to meet him at the dark of the moon. His father Walter used to say, ‘My boy Thomas, give him a dirty look and he’ll gouge your eye out. Trip him, and he’ll cut off your leg. But if you don’t cut across him, he’s a very gentleman. And he’ll stand anybody a drink.’'.

I think she wrote him as Rylance portrays him, but with the threat of a man who could kill with his bare hands underneath that Rylance just doesn't quite choose to portray.

Maybe that's where people who haven't read the books have the advantage.

I see the books and the play and the tv all as entirely separate entities. Nothing but nothing - no matter how magnificent Mark Rylance is - can compare to the books.

and @BitOutOfPractice
After 20 or so pages I couldn’t stand reading it any more.
Her confusing use of pronouns and the annoying way you never know who is speaking drove me nuts.
Im a big reader but Mantel is a no for me

That doesn’t work any more, apparently!

I had a same experience years ago and gave up on the book