The pace in the second series of this BBC period drama, nine years after the first, is glacial, with a lot of whispering, hat removing and writing so bad it makes you long for Will & Grace Mark Rylance as Thomas Cromwell and Kate Phillips as Jane Seymour in Wolf Hall: The Mirror And The Light. Photo: Nick Briggs Trumpian: Damian Lewis as Henry VIII in the new series of Wolf Hall. Photo: Nick Briggs Harriet Walter as Lady Margaret Pole.
Photo: Nick Briggs Wolf Hall . I’m not convinced. It’s too posh.
It’s too pleased with itself in all its incandescent beauty. There’s velvet and fur everywhere, all the time. And now here we are again, for a second “epic new series” as the BBC continuity announcer called it beforehand, nine years after the first.
Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light started last night. It’s a terrible title. But we all know what it means: stand by for more candlelight and birdsong.
These people do nothing creative with history. A Man For All Seasons was an anarchist production by comparison. There’s a lot of whispering.
The pace is glacial. There are a lot of letters, and the paper crunches as these letters are put into Thomas Cromwell’s jacket and then laboriously taken out again. There’s a lot of bowing, many hats removed and then replaced on the heads of their owners.
Henry VIII, played by Damian Lewis, the second most famous ginger in the world, is a big baby who threatens and sulks and shares intimate details of his wedding night. In fac.
