Wolf Hall 1&2

[danny la rouge]

Wonderful stuff. Rylance stole the show, of course, but others were also brilliant. Timothy Spall was engagingly hateful as Norfolk. Damien Lewis was by turns terrifying and ludicrous as the Mercurial and spoilt Henry.

What a ludicrous and appalling institution monarchy is. All that fear, all those wasted lives, and all the intrigue to secure a male heir.

And the current monarch is in place just because he can trace a family tree to include Henry (his 13 times great grand uncle I believe).

Can anyone watch this horrorshow and remain a monarchist?

 

[Pickman's model]

Wonderful stuff. Rylance stole the show, of course, but others were also brilliant. Timothy Spall was engagingly hateful as Norfolk. Damien Lewis was by turns terrifying and ludicrous as the Mercurial and spoilt Henry.

What a ludicrous and appalling institution monarchy is. All that fear, all those wasted lives, and all the intrigue to secure a male heir.

And the current monarch is in place just because he can trace a family tree to include Henry (his 13 times great grand uncle I believe).

Can anyone watch this horrorshow and remain a monarchist?

until i read this i thought the current monarch was only in place because he was the eldest son of the previous incumbent

 

[danny la rouge]

until i read this i thought the current monarch was only in place because he was the eldest son of the previous incumbent

And the chain of incumbents back, in which Henry is a link.

 

[Pickman's model]

if monarchs executed one great minister to replace them with another then monarchy would have something to recommend it. there'd be fewer people crowing about how great thatcher was if elizabeth ii had had her executed in parliament square and her noggin exposed to public view, nailed to an arch over westminster bridge

 

[Pickman's model]

And the chain of incumbents back.

it happens to be that way but that is not 'monarchy'. i daresay we'd object to an elective monarchy as much as we do the hereditary monarchy of the current era, or even a monarchy founded on the ritual murder of the previous incumbent.

 

[furluxor]

I found the pacing too slow and the characters all unappealing, which left me disinterested after the first episode. And I can't watch hours of the stuff just to salivate over Damian Lewis, that would be undignified.
Would still give the books a try.

 

[xenon]

This got recommended to me again recently. What service is it on?

 

[girasol]

This got recommended to me again recently. What service is it on?

BBC iPlayer. I have to be in the right mood to watch it and put phone away so I don't get distracted. The thing that intrigues me the most is how heavy their outfits must have been! But I guess without central heating and global warming they kept them warm - plus the effort of carrying all that fabric kept you sweaty and fit

 

[xenon]

BBC iPlayer

Cheers. I struggle a bit with following TV series, lose interest etc but plan to binge some stuff over Christmas.

 

[Pickman's model]

one thing that caught my attention was the personal nature of all of it, that cromwell's always going here and there to see people and i'm damned if i can see how he had the time to do all the things he did - it's as though the dissolution of the monasteries and the suppression of eg the pilgrimage of grace happened by chance in between chasing round the country to see princess mary or wolsey's daughter. i don't know whether cromwell really was on the move all the time but it intrigued me so much i've listening to a biography of the man.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Wonderful stuff. Rylance stole the show, of course, but others were also brilliant. Timothy Spall was engagingly hateful as Norfolk. Damien Lewis was by turns terrifying and ludicrous as the Mercurial and spoilt Henry.

What a ludicrous and appalling institution monarchy is. All that fear, all those wasted lives, and all the intrigue to secure a male heir.

And the current monarch is in place just because he can trace a family tree to include Henry (his 13 times great grand uncle I believe).

Can anyone watch this horrorshow and remain a monarchist?

He can probably trace back to Henry in hundreds of ways tbf.

A fair old percentage of British people can trace back to him as their Uncle Harry in at least one way.

 

[Sue]

All that fear, all those wasted lives, and all the intrigue to secure a male heir.

Have you never heard of spoilers..?

 

[Santino]

Maybe it was the royal court that was the real HALL full of WOLF(ves) all along?

 

[danny la rouge]

He can probably trace back to Henry in hundreds of ways tbf.

A fair old percentage of British people can trace back to him as their Uncle Harry in at least one way.

We’re all kings and queens.

Well, some of us are queens.

 

[Rebecca Riot]

Have you never heard of spoilers..?

Someone on Digital Spy actually DID complain about another poster who, before the programme started, mentioned that Cromwell was executed at the end and told them off for not putting it in spoiler tags!

 

[Sue]

Someone on Digital Spy actually DID complain about another poster who, before the programme started, mentioned that Cromwell was executed at the end and told them off for not putting it in spoiler tags!

Exactly.

 

[kalidarkone]

I can't get enough of Mark Rylance's voice. I want to fall asleep to his voice every night.

 

[Saul Goodman]

it happens to be that way but that is not 'monarchy'. i daresay we'd object to an elective monarchy as much as we do the hereditary monarchy of the current era, or even a monarchy founded on the ritual murder of the previous incumbent.

That's a system I could get behind. Cordon off Balmoral and Birkhall, place one set of cunts at each venue, and let the feuding factions fight to the death, until one emerges victorious. Rinse and repeat.
It could be turned into a national pastime, like the hunger games.

 

[JimW]

one thing that caught my attention was the personal nature of all of it, that cromwell's always going here and there to see people and i'm damned if i can see how he had the time to do all the things he did - it's as though the dissolution of the monasteries and the suppression of eg the pilgrimage of grace happened by chance in between chasing round the country to see princess mary or wolsey's daughter. i don't know whether cromwell really was on the move all the time but it intrigued me so much i've listening to a biography of the man.

The court was on the move almost constantly, despite the frenetic schedule plus accompanying the king hunting, think it might be possible for an energetic man with no social media to distract him.

 

[izz]

one thing that caught my attention was the personal nature of all of it, that cromwell's always going here and there to see people and i'm damned if i can see how he had the time to do all the things he did - it's as though the dissolution of the monasteries and the suppression of eg the pilgrimage of grace happened by chance in between chasing round the country to see princess mary or wolsey's daughter. i don't know whether cromwell really was on the move all the time but it intrigued me so much i've listening to a biography of the man.

Who wrote the biography ?

 

[Pickman's model]

Who wrote the biography ?

Diarmuid mccolloch

 

[ElizabethofYork]

I found the pacing too slow and the characters all unappealing, which left me disinterested after the first episode. And I can't watch hours of the stuff just to salivate over Damian Lewis, that would be undignified.
Would still give the books a try.

The books are absolutely mesmerising. You get totally immersed in the Tudor world.

I really enjoyed the TV series'. Fell a bit in love with Cromwell

 

[MickiQ]

a monarchy founded on the ritual murder of the previous incumbent.

Tell us more about this idea of yours

 

[Pickman's model]

Tell us more about this idea of yours

It's not an idea of mine as anyone familiar with the first pages of frazer's golden bough will know

 

[oryx]

Fantastic series. Someone on the iPlayer thread said that so many scenes looked like paintings, which is true. Rylance, Lewis, Spall and just about everyone's acting was superb.

Made me think what bloody, awful times those were, especially when Cromwell was relieved to be beheaded instead of hung. On reflection I put a spoiler on that!

 

[A380]

And the chain of incumbents back, in which Henry is a link.

No, that’s just a myth they wrap themselves in. Who was/is monarch is down to power and money and politics. And on a couple of occasions down to us.

But yeah, loved the books and the TV series. And Rylance is always outstanding.

 

[sojourner]

I can't get enough of Mark Rylance's voice. I want to fall asleep to his voice every night.

I have a total crush on him, always have had.

Anyhoo, watched the last episode last night, and bloody loved it.

 

[felixthecat]

.
But yeah, loved the books and the TV series. And Rylance is always outstanding.

I really couldn't get into the books at all, but the TV series has been epic. Another vote here for Mark Rylances voice btw...

 

[danny la rouge]

I really couldn't get into the books at all, but the TV series has been epic. Another vote here for Mark Rylances voice btw...

Totally agree. I didn’t think I’d like the first series when I came out as we’d done the book in my book group and I hated it. Couldn’t finish it. But I was captivated by S1 immediately.

 

[A380]

I loved the books as they were a great example of great historical fiction, where the characters give the impression of people of their time ( These ones, Patrick O’Brian, Mary Renault ) rather than good historical fiction where it seems you have modern people in well researched worlds. ( The Hornblower and Shardlake books come to mind).

Mantel said that in the Wolf Hall trilogy she was trying to capture the inner life of an intelligent person living in a world that had no knowledge of how the conscious and unconscious minds interacted. I thought that was done brilliantly.

On another note, Rylance fans who haven’t seen him in Bridge of Spies should check that out…