Wolf Hall

Already a forum on this......but must admit....I'm not that impressed.

No. . just love Mark Rylance!

A critic complained it was too dark, but I suppose they couldn't have too many bright lights shining on those antique furnishings!

Well, I don't love him but I must say he was the only one holding my interest.

Yes Mark Rylance is good to watch...my main gripe is that they seem to have gone to enormous trouble to get costume and set as accurate as possible yet, to me, the language (which I suppose is Ms Mantels') seems uneasily with all that perceived accuracy. I am much happier when dramatists manage to reflect the language patterns of the times. Am not asking for total accuracy just a bit more of a flavour of those times.

I understand that the books are very good but I'm getting a bit fed up of the Henry VIII period, and sometimes wonder just how boring our history would have been if his first wife had had a son and/or that he hadn't met Anne Boleyn [?].

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.

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.

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!

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.

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

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

Henry was a sort of Tudor Tony Soprano.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

I thought it was a thousand days??

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

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 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.