Shardlake on Disney+

grannydarkhair, last October I signed up to Disney+ for a month just to watch Hocus Pocus and all of the (fun) Halloween films! If folks recommend Shardlake I shall do it again so am eagerly awaiting reviews on here. So very sad to have lost such a wonderful writer, Dominion utterly chilled me and the Shardlake books are without comparison.

We watched the first part yesterday and were impressed. Will definitely continue with it.
The only Shardlake book I’ve read was Tombland as it’s set mostly in Norwich which I know well.

Treebee do read the rest of them, they're well woth it. I've been pleasantly surprised by this series. Obviously fitting a long story into four episodes means making changes, but I think it's been done well.

Treebee I agree with Deedaa about reading the rest of the books. They’re wonderfully descriptive of the Tudor period, and Matthew is such an interesting character.
I haven’t read Dominion, I have read Winter in Madrid but didn’t enjoy it nearly as much as the Shardlake books.

I expect there will be a run on the books now. I have read a couple of them, but I don't have Netflix so won't be watching the series.

Tombland is the 8th and last in this wonderful series. Sadly, Chris Sanson was writing a further 9th SHardlake book when he died. Nobody knows if this will be finished by anyone else. Had herd he had written some twenty thousand words, of it.
Brilliant series, wonderful writing, highly researched. I do not have Disney and am not sure if I wish to see an adaptation of these books - I have them all on Audible and will be listening to all eight again over the next many months.

There is a Sanson group on facebook, which endlessly discusses (and moans about) the changes that this tv series is making - for example Shardlake's assistant in the first book 'Dssolution' is replaced by the one he has in all the other books. and Shardlake's disability has been changed for tv.

I am more than happy with sticking with the books, Chris Sanson will be greatly missed, one of the truly great historic book authors. Head and shoulders above Hilary Mantel (although I do love the wolf Hall books).

Franbern I did wonder if “show” Matthew would be hunchbacked? I’ve just skimmed through the Facebook group posts, read that the actor who plays Matthew has radial dysplasia and has used the posture this gave him in how he portrays his character (when younger, he used to hide his hand in his pocket which changed his posture and gave him a sore back).
I disagree that CJ was better than HM, I find them comparable in their writing about the Tudor period. I also loved A Place of Greater Safety, HM’s book about the French Revolution.

Curtaintwitcher, I think we saw it on Disney, not Netflix. Watched it pretty much one after another.

I enjoyed it and went looking gor more but couldn't find any!

It can be difficult, watching a film or series which is based on a book you've read. I didn't watch 'The White Queen' when it was on tv, but I'm now reading the books.
After seeing Harry Potter, I bought all the books and thoroughly enjoyed them.
I love seeing the lavish costumes and locations of historical dramas, but I think I prefer to read the story and have my own mental picture.

We've just watched it and really enjoyed it. My only complaint is we didn't see more of the lovely Sean Bean ......

I’ve read all the Shardlake series. I’m not entirely convinced by the television series. Shardlake is a much more empathetic complex character than so far I’ve seen displayed - I’m on the third one - but perhaps this gets more developed further into the series?

Sanson was someone I admired at a personal level - a lot. His Cromwell was a much darker character than Mantels’ but I think both authors were brilliant in their own style.

So sad that such great writers died so young.