Wolf Hall - Season 2 - The Mirror & the Light

As good as TV gets.

Locations, costumes and properties were perfect and some of Britain's finest actors were seen here at the peak of their powers. The BBC deserves huge credit for this production.

merlotgran

I was surprised to see Cromwell kneeling at the block still wearing his outer clothing with his hair loose. How could the executioner see his neck?

There has been so much attention to detail throughout that I wondered if this would really of happened.

I have read before that the executioner have to have three goes with the axe before the head was severed.

Mark Rylance is always good but he was outstanding. A simply brilliant performance.

I read that too Ilovecheese I sometimes wonder just what kind of man could be an executioner, one who could cold bloodedly take an axe and do the unspeakable things to another human being that they did. Poor Thomas's can't have been that good at his job

Can’t argue with that, FGT. Like Merlot, I too picked up on the fact that he still wore his doublet as he put his head on the block, but to dwell on such insignificances as this in the face of such a tour de force would be niggardly. It apparently took two or three strokes of the axe to part him from his head. There is testimony from the time: “Cromwell so paciently suffered the stroke of the axe, by a ragged and boocherly miser, whiche very ungoodly perfourmed the office.” No French swordsman for him. At least he was spared a worse fate.

Oh how gruesome Greyduster.
That’s probably why HM has him say “don’t hesitate axe man it’ll do neither of us any good”. (Or words to that effect).
Yikes.
Talk? I’d be a gibbering wreck. Or faint.

We watched the second episode last night which was really good.
DP said ‘ wonder what will happen in the last episode’ ( bless him)😁

he still wore his doublet

Was it the purple one though?

Wow, what a brilliant series, definitely the BBC at it's finest. Mark Rylance was exceptional and his performance in the last episode was riveting as was the script. How sad that Hilary Mantel was not alive to see this, her writing required some commitment from the reader but once I began to savour the language rather than rush to follow the story, I was totally hooked!

Ilovecheese

merlotgran

I was surprised to see Cromwell kneeling at the block still wearing his outer clothing with his hair loose. How could the executioner see his neck?

There has been so much attention to detail throughout that I wondered if this would really of happened.

I have read before that the executioner have to have three goes with the axe before the head was severed.

I read that Norfolk and his cronies paid the executioner to make it as painful as possible. Norfolk himself went on to escape execution because Henry died before the date of it had been set.

All those Gransnetters who don't pay the licence fee have missed a treat.

I was rather dreading the final episode and a possible 'head in the basket' moment. Need not have worried about that. BUT this was the most sublime acting I've ever seen, on the part of all the cast. A very sad episode. In a good way.

Rafe was the one that broke my heart. And Call Me. The way he and the other guy whose name escapes me portrayed the way that they had to work to convict Cromwell but were so uneasy and ashamed of themselves for doing so was acting at it’s finest. I still think Timothy Spall was miss cast, though.

MayBee70 I'm a little bit in love with Rafe!

Did Gregory do as his father wished and disown him to save himself does anyone know?

Aww what a great series.
Loved every minute of it.
Well done BBC so sad Hilary not here to see the series.

A masterpiece .

MayBee70

Ilovecheese

merlotgran

I was surprised to see Cromwell kneeling at the block still wearing his outer clothing with his hair loose. How could the executioner see his neck?

There has been so much attention to detail throughout that I wondered if this would really of happened.

I have read before that the executioner have to have three goes with the axe before the head was severed.

I read that Norfolk and his cronies paid the executioner to make it as painful as possible. Norfolk himself went on to escape execution because Henry died before the date of it had been set.

Norfolk was a truly ghastly, diabolical man.

Yes, loved the series, as well as the book.

foxie48

MayBee70 I'm a little bit in love with Rafe!

I just want to give him a hug and a hankie. I wonder what happened to him ( going to Google it)…

“Rafe died in 1587, aged around 80, and was known as the "richest commoner in England" at the time of his death”.
Looks like the boy did well!

It struck me last night that I totally believed in these people. They weren't actors in costumes, they were people wearing their own clothes and walking about in their own homes. I've never felt that so strongly about any other show.

I get so absorbed in something as brilliant as Wolf Hall and totally forget I'm an old lady. I'm glad Rafe lived a long and successful life, few seemed to!

foxie48

I get so absorbed in something as brilliant as Wolf Hall and totally forget I'm an old lady. I'm glad Rafe lived a long and successful life, few seemed to!

I can’t help but feel that Rafe was Cromwell’s legacy. He learned how to survive and prosper from him. He made mistakes during his life but knew how to surmount them.

Surely Ralph is the correct English spelling of the name that was once pronounced Rafe. It's only in recent times that the spelling has been changed to match the pronunciation. The same as Shaun for Sean.

Ralph could also be pronounced as it is spelled but I don’t think the name Rafe actually existed until the 20th century.

Happy to be corrected if I’m wrong.

I read, in the past, that there's been quite a debate among historians about the chaotic circumstances of the execution. Was Norfolk responsible for paying someone to get the executioner drunk, or was it Henry's final vindictive act to deliberately arrange for someone inexperienced and incompetent to do the deed?