Wolf Hall

Mark Rylance is brilliant as Cromwell.
What an amazingly 'still' performance yet he communicates so much, sometimes just by a glance.
Top notch acting but the lighting could be better for me.

I watch the telly in complete darkness as I found having the light on in the room spoiled it, and find it very atmospheric.

I like Hilary Mantels earlier books. I really cannot get into her last three. I was bored rigid with the last episode of Wolf Hall .

River There's just no pleasing some people!

Lona those candlelit scenes get on my nerves!

I'm really enjoying it too, not for the story (I didn't like the book), but for the beautiful candlelit scenes and the way Mark Rylance is portraying Cromwell.

I'm completely hooked and couldn't resist chuckling at a 'loved up' Cromwell singing in the courtyard.

He's always been the baddie and Thomas More the goodie in previous dramas about the Tudors. Nice to have a different slant.

Thankyou phoenix senility strikes again! Of course it was a thousand days. Even Anne Boleyn would have been a bit pushed to produce Elizabeth I and at least one miscarriage in a hundred days

I am really enjoying this now. The sheer bliss of sitting and watching people not doing a lot, with a minimum of background music is such a change and I'm getting really hooked on the candlelight scenes.

I'm afraid I get muddled as to who is who - male and female - and nodded off last night which didn't help.

I thought it was a thousand days??

There are lots of animals in the series aren't there. Were they featured a lot in the book??

Very difficult to get a convincing Anne Boleyn I think. i always liked Genevieve Bujold in Anne of the Hundred Days but I think Charlotte Rampling, in the film of The Six Wives of Henry VIII, had the sort of nervous energy that Anne must have had.

I think Natalie Dormer in Henry VIII was a much better Anne Boleyn than the actress in Wolf Hall. Maybe she'll get beter but there's no charisma imo.

rosesarered I think the commonest theory is that the Sweating Sickness was a form of Influenza but the symptoms don't altogether fit. It could kill within hours though and when you think of the devastation caused by Spanish Flu you can see the Sweat must have been terrifying.

Loved it but have read both books.
( Wolf Hall was better than BUTB IMO).
Mrs Retiredguy hasn't read the books and said it was a bit hard to follow.

I haven't read the books and realise that my lack of interest in reading historical novels has been a big mistake. Having watched the film "The Other Boleyn Girl" a week or so ago and now Wolf Hall, I have discovered how totally ignorant I am on such matters. I'm sure we must have done some of this in history at school but, other than the names of Henry VIII's wives, I remember almost nothing.

There was a discussion on Newsnight after Wolf Hall was shown. In answer to the criticism that historical novels and dramas are not completely accurate, the historian/novelist said that even historians sometimes have limited information to go on and have to try and piece together different accounts to arrive at what they feel is a reasonably accurate portrayal of characters and events. She felt, however, that novels and dramas often prompted people to find out more about the period, rather than just take everything at face value. It's certainly sparked my interest.

Anyway, I thought it was really well done (although I agree with HildaW that some of the language didn't seem quite right) and I'm looking forward to the next one.

Yes, they send me an advance copy as I am a VIP.
It's just that it's based on the books, and Henry does a great deal of stamping about, so hopefully it will be included, and there are all kinds of plots.

How do you know, roses, have you seen the next episode in advance?

Henry was a sort of Tudor Tony Soprano.

Yes! It does get more exciting [at least I thought so.]Wait until you see Henry stamping about in a rage.

Is it supposed to be exciting though? Isn't it just history?

I assumed that the sweating sickness was typhoid fever.I enjoyed the first episode, I think you need to stick with it and it will get more exciting, it was scene setting really this week.I loved the books , and think this won't be as good [films rarely are] but still will be well worth watching.

I've watched this twice now and it's really beginning to feel like the book. Very sad the way his family was wiped out at a stroke. No one has yet proved for certain what the Sweating Sickness was, it might well be just as devastating if we had an epidemic today.

I'm loving Mark Gatiss - he does slimy and devious so well!

At least we can hear the words though! It seems to have escaped the curse of Jamaica Inn And the music isn't too intrusive.

Tegan
Would we be Catholics? Or perhaps Martin Luther et al would have prevailed.
Probably no C of E and tv programme makers would have to put on their thinking caps a bit more.