Follow the meteoric rise of a man who becomes King Henry VIII’s closest advisor. Tony® Award-winning actor Mark Rylance (Twelfth Night) and Emmy® and Golden Globe® Award-winner Damian Lewis (Homeland) star in the miniseries adapted from Hilary Mantel’s best-selling Booker Prize-winning novels: Wolf Hall and its sequel, Bring Up the Bodies. Mark Rylance is Thomas Cromwell, a brutal blacksmith s son who rises from the ashes of personal disaster, and deftly picks his way through a court where ‘man is wolf to man.’ Damian Lewis is King Henry VIII, obsessed with protecting the Tudor dynasty by securing his succession with a male heir to the throne. Told from Cromwell’s perspective, Wolf Hall follows the complex machinations and back room dealings of this pragmatic and accomplished power broker who must serve king and country while dealing with deadly political intrigue, Henry VIII’s tempestuous relationship with Anne Boleyn (Claire Foy, Little Dorrit), and the religious upheavals of the Protestant reformation.
Anchored by Mark Rylance’s towering central performance, “Wolf Hall” is a very quiet “Masterpiece,” visiting the court of King Henry VIII minus the perfume and airbrushing associated with something like “The Tudors.” Adapted from Hilary Mantel’s award-winning novels, this six-hour project boasts an insanely good cast, while moving at such a methodical pace as to almost obscure all the treachery and politicking at work. Although there has been no shortage of productions devoted to this period, aficionados will doubtless relish another escape into the 16th century, this time peering over the shoulder of Rylance’s cool and calculating adviser Thomas Cromwell. – Variety
Based on not one but two Booker Prize-winning novels, and starring Mark Rylance, one of the great stage actors of our time, it’s acutely intelligent, luxuriously dressed and well acted across the board. It’s also notably serious and quiet, despite the occasional beheading or session on the rack required by a tale involving Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. – NYT
Shown on PBS Masterpiece Theatre.
Starring Mark Rylance, Damian Lewis, Claire Foy, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Joss Porter.