Wolf Hall

If you think about it "Riverwalk" the upper classes would have to be fairly refined when it came to eating. They were spending a considerable amount on their clothes and, even with numerous servants cleaning them, would have been far more difficult than it is today. I can't be the only person to have ruined a really nice garment with an irremovable drop of gravy (more than one actually )

My mother was a big Charles Laughton fan and I don't think we ever had roast chicken for dinner without her declaiming "Manners are dead! Refinement is a thing of the past!" although she did refrain from throwing the bones over her shoulder

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8xPhU5132I

This is nothing to do with Wolf Hall but it is a hilarious 'dinner party'
(an hilarious dinner party?)

I think that must have been my late father's favourite scene in any film - the sight of Charles Laughton half eating a chicken leg and then throwing the bones over his shoulder to the hounds sitting behind his chair used to amuse him no end . His own table manners were impeccable, I might add!

I believe that manners at court were a lot more polished that Charles Laughton portrayed (the chicken-bone throwing was his own idea), though perhaps not the same manners as today. Clean hands were important, they were washed before, during and after a meal If you didn't know how to behave you were considered a clodhopper.

www.latourdulac.com/manners/Elizabethan.html has a section on "Behaving At Table" Henry's court must have been much the same as Elizabeth's

Not exactly Charles Laughton's portrayal of Henry chomping on chicken legs is it, Riverwalk?

I'm irritated by their eating habits!

Polite and dainty cutting-up with a knife and a tiny morsel popped into the mouth, followed by teensy weensy chewing ..... surely it was a bit more earthy!

anya isn't that interesting - I found his meaningful looks and silence quite forbidding as in "I wouldn't like to get on the wrong side of him".

Yes, I thought the parallels drawn were thought provoking. As for the whole show, I think that's the secret of a good film/programme/series. Casting directors are very underrated imo also.

I'm doubtless in the minority but Mark Rylance does nothing for me. His portrayal of Thomas Cromwell relied too much on meaningful looks and silences, which didn't quite tally with the brutish character being played.
But then, I hated David Tenent in Broadchurch too, so I'm probably past reclaim.

dives for cover

For the Gransnet Mark Rylance Fan Club, here he is on Desert Island Discs: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0520t2t

I thought the parallels that Mark Rylance drew between that time and now were quite insightful, especially his comment that Christianity then was a very brutal thing - with hanging, drawing and quartering, beheading, burning, torture and rape being fairly commonplace.

What a nice, unassuming man Mark Rylance seemed - I liked the way he praised the extras and the whole team that made up the "show" (as he called it!).

I did have to stop watching Brad in a film where he played a German prisoner of war because his accent was pathetic! I bet he's never done an accent since. I think it was A River Runs through It that made me sit up and take more notice of him; which reminds me that I haven't watched Babel [had it on dvd for years]. It was strange watching Mark Rylance; like a lot of actors if you met him and didn't know what career he followed you'd never guess he was an actor. A lot of actors in Game of Thrones are stage actors; I watched an episode the other day that had a 5 minute scene played by one of Irelands leading Beckett actors; they'd wanted him to take the part and he was more than happy to do it. Wolf Hall is the only thing recently that has come anywhere close to GoT's. I might dig out my dvd of Bleak House and rewatch it; I was totally mesmerised by that when it was on. celialillian; do you watch all of the amazing BBC4 history programmes? Janinas [my current favourite historian]latest series on monasteries is particulary good. Going back to Wolf Hall, a lot of the guys on one of my racing forums have been enthralled by it as well. I hadn't realised that it encompassed two books and that the author is trying to write the follow up. I did flick through one of the books at the supermarket the other day and might attempt to read one so I can get more of a feel for how they'd approached the adaptation.

I found the part where Henry was standing beaming, waiting to welcome Cromwell into his open arms after Anne had been beheaded to be particularly awful. Henry looked almost triumphant. Cromwell's expression over his shoulder was (for me) particularly poignant in that he looked as though he was wondering where on earth this was all going to end. He probably was. Although, at that period in time he had no way of knowing how much farther Henry was yet to go in his pursuit of a male heir.

I think Brad Pitt is a fantastic actor Tegan. His roles in Inglorious Basterds and Seven being my two favourite.

I think Wolf Hall is fantastic, brilliant actors and authentic places....as I live quite close to the National Trust properties that were used in this production, Monticute, Barrington court and Lacock, as a National Trust member I have visited these houses many times over, it was magical to see the historic characters in the rooms and gardens I know so well. Next time I visit these properties, it will bring them to life in my mind. I will walk into rooms and down staircases with brilliant images of the real people that once lived there. Can you guess I love history.

Brilliant to the end! I haven't got so involved in anything on television for a long time. A wonderful production all round and Kirsty Wark's interview was fascinating.
I've always found Brad Pitt surprisingly good once you get past him being a film star.

I think that once Henry decided he wanted rid of Anne events moved very quickly. Fabricating evidence is a lot quicker than searching for the truth. After all she was Anne of the thousand days and, once you take out one successful and two failed pregnancies, it doesn't leave long to round up and try suspects.

It was interesting that Mark Rylance said he watched a lot of films and he was very impressed with Brad Pitts acting, because I've always thought that [the Coen Brothers wouldn't use him if he wasn't good] although he's rubbish at doing accents.

Strong stuff - very moving. As they said in the interview with Kirsty Wark afterwards , if only Henry and Anne could have fast forwarded a few hundred years and realised that they gave birth to England's greatest monarch, not a "weak girl". Ironic.

....I enjoyed watching that interview [good old iplayer]; thanks for that .

I think I was always walking around with my head in the clouds at 15-16 rosequartz and (although its very hard to believe these days) I was quite good at English language and literature. I think I probably got the the three (including History) totally muddled up. I was always useless with dates.

I agree Claire Foye played Anne Boleyn very well didn't she? A few years ago my DD and I visited her resting place in The Tower of London which sent shivers down my spine. I can't even begin to imagine how she must have felt in the moments leading up to her death. I wonder if she really did remain so dignified. I would have been screaming blue murder. Nothing to lose. (well except my head but I was gonna lose that anyway).

gillybob my mock GCE history exam was marked at 22% with the note: 'your history paper owes more to imagination than fact.'
I did pass the GCE as I stopped reading Jean Plaidy books and started swotting.

I did think Claire Foye was excellent last night (I missed a few episodes) and must confess that I cried.

tegan I watched (having watched an interview with Mark Rylance by Melvyn Bragg on Sky Arts from 8 p.m. - but not about Wolf Hall about all his other work.)

I also found the execution scene chilling. Also didn't quite follow how all those men were framed, that bit did seem rushed.

I go to Lewes quite often and there's an 'Anne of Cleves house', I must go in and have a look, although I don't think she ever lived there.

I am not a great TV fan Tegan I prefer to have music blasting playing. I do love history programmes though and only normally manage to catch them if someone recommends something to me. So thank you I will look out for those two.

Incidentally I was useless at History at school. I enjoyed it but had a habit of filling in the blanks with bits that I had made up, which really annoyed my teachers.

Everything I wrote had to be character based and my lovely O level history teacher once wrote at the end of one of my essays:

Gillybob. That servant girl of yours will help you fail your O level exam. She did not exist. What part of that do you not get?

My iplayer is behaving itself at the moment; I would've gone bonkers if I couldn't've watched last nights episode! There was a brilliant programme last night about women and the vote; Amanda Vickery. Not sure if it was a repeat but sounded as if it was a new series. And Saints and Sinners; the series about monasteries is on BBC4 tonight. A veritable feast for those of us mad about history .

It's definitely worth watching on catch-up Tegan hope you can get it.

yes, it is on iplayer.