I think Rylance's portrayal of Cromwell is an absolute masterclass in acting. Quiet and still and watchful with an air of intelligence and menace. It's much more difficult to do understated than it is to do shouty, arm flailing type acting.
Loved his flickers of humour too when speaking to Mary Boleyn and Henry.
Can't wait for next week's episode.
This. I have seen him at the Globe several times and he is always superb. His Richard II was memorable - I think there are some clips from the TV broadcast of this on YouTube.
Another thing I loved was the use of period music, especially Cornyshe's Ah Robin and Henry's Pastime with good companie.
There is nothing worse than poor modern music for destroying a sense of time and place. They do it all the time in the movies and its always sh!te.
One thing I thought was missing in this first episode was a sense that the action was largely taking place in London as opposed to various country house scattered across England. York Place (now Whitehall) and Cromwell's house at Austin Friars (in the City of London) were both in built-up areas despite having large gardens. The bustle of the city was absent, probably because of budget constraints more than anything. I didn't really get the impression of a Tudor court or of a large bureaucratic system.
ETA: if anyone wants to find out more about the King's attempt to divorce Catherine of Aragon, and Anne Boleyn's downfall, then you can't go wrong with Starkey's vast 'Six Wives of Henry VIII'. Most of its 880 pages are taken up with Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn and the divorce proceedings.
Enjoyed this. Thoroughly engrossing but you have to concentrate with the backwards and forwards in time! Lighting a little dark in places, but it would have been, and the sets are beautiful, so much more colourful than you normally see. Looking forward to next week.
I've not read the books or seen the stage version (it would be fruitless to compare different formats of the same story anyway), but as a piece of television drama I liked it a lot. I liked the way it was visually captured as it felt like being transported back to that moment in time rather than, 'Look, this is a period drama'. Most historical films/TV series feel quite staged but the sparseness and natural performances gave it something of a visual authenticity.
My one criticism, though, would be with some of the dialogue itself. While all delivered brilliantly, much of it was exposition rather than conversation. Because the story cuts in at a certain point in the history, it's the dialogue that is used to explain the position of key characters and their motivations as well as important events from before. It's stuff that's necessary for the reader/audience to understand what's going on if they're not au fait with the history, but it wouldn't really come up in natural conversation as it was common knowledge to all parties. It's a shame as it means a great deal of subtle texture that could've featured in some exchanges is immediately lost because of extraneous details.
I think Rylance's portrayal of Cromwell is an absolute masterclass in acting. Quiet and still and watchful with an air of intelligence and menace. It's much more difficult to do understated than it is to do shouty, arm flailing type acting.
Loved his flickers of humour too when speaking to Mary Boleyn and Henry.
Can't wait for next week's episode.
Absolutely, I thought he was superb.
Really looking forward to the rest of the series. In the meantime I'll just have to watch this episode again.
What it obviously needed was more guns, nudity and rampaging aliens.
This
And words cannot describe how disappointed I was and how cheated I felt at the end of this episode. Just over an hour and not a single vampire in sight. Not one.
That scene with Henry at the end was brilliant. How Rylance played it, like a brick wall, refusing to bend to Henry and saying what he wanted to say not what Henry might have wanted him to say.
While I try not to focus on physical similarities (against Holbein / Wiki images!!!), concentrating on how the actors play the roles, DL does look quite like images we've probably all seen of Henry, including his aubern colouring.
Apologies for repeating the anecdote for any who have already read it but at Reading Services on the M4 a few years back, I was waiting to pay for petrol and turned around only to see Damian Lewis two behind me in the queue.
Having just read and watched Band of Brothers (Ambrose book / David Schwimmer and DL film), I froze in star struck panic.
Decided to wait for DL outside and as he emerged, I said, 'Lt Winters?' (DL's character in BOB). He smiled and then sped off to his car as I made a slight move towards him.
He probably feared that I was some sort of Motorway Services Star Stalker making the petrol buying experiences of top actors a nightmare ('All I wanted was some unleaded and a Twix but this bloke went on and on about the Normandy landings and how I lead my men through the hedgerows of Northern France!!!)
Back to Wolf Hall, didn't Mark Rylance play Thomas Boleyn in The Other Boleyn Girl?
Re Band of Brothers. I remember discussing this great series with a friend. I was telling her how good I thought the American actor Damian Lewis was. She said he happened to be a friend of hers, and wasn't American at all, but English!!! What a shock. I was convinced he was American.
As for the Other Boleyn Girl and The Tudors, I never got round to seeing either. Maybe just as well going by some of the comments on here.lol
Re Band of Brothers. I remember discussing this great series with a friend. I was telling her how good I thought the American actor Damian Lewis was. She said he happened to be a friend of hers, and wasn't American at all, but English!!! What a shock. I was convinced he was American.
As for the Other Boleyn Girl and The Tudors, I never got round to seeing either. Maybe just as well going by some of the comments on here.lol
The Other Boleyn Girl was based on Phillipa Gregory's book of the same name. Much as I really love Gregory's books, I would never take them as accurate historically, which is why on the page naming the publishers etc., they are described as 'fiction'.
When I saw Damien Lewis in Band of Brothers I too thought he was American, which proves what a good actor he is!
....is that just the modern attention span's response to a traditional costume drama? With six episodes, they can only go so far in the plot with each one.
No, I don't think it's the dire state of the modern attention span. I found it really slow going too. Which surprised me, because Wolf Hall the book vividly gives a sense of how difficult it was live in Tudor times - not just with the court intrigues, but the massive amount of effort required to live, work, travel, eat, stay clean, stay pious, manage a home and family and entourage... even with servants, you got the sense that the key players are all constantly exhausted. There was just so much to do!
This production was like a throwback to 70s costume drama. Long scenes with static actors doing not very much:
- Characters delivering their (sparse) lines with a meaningful pause or two in the middle.
- Liz putting down a book, with that little respectful 'palm' thing actors do, like they're stroking it, they love it so much (I know it was the Bible, but still).
- If there'd been a letter, someone would have looked at the address for 5 seconds before opening it.
...that kind of thing. Drives me mad :o:D:D
Me neither, unfortunately. Rylance's Cromwell is a loveable, pixie-ish character, always wrongfooting the big boorish barons. I expected something nearer to the character in the novel, and certainly less cliched.
And words cannot describe how disappointed I was and how cheated I felt at the end of this episode. Just over an hour and not a single vampire in sight. Not one.
Re Band of Brothers. I remember discussing this great series with a friend. I was telling her how good I thought the American actor Damian Lewis was. She said he happened to be a friend of hers, and wasn't American at all, but English!!! What a shock. I was convinced he was American.
As for the Other Boleyn Girl and The Tudors, I never got round to seeing either. Maybe just as well going by some of the comments on here.lol
On BOB, another co-incidence around the same time as my 'How to stalk Damian Lewis' incident, while I was at a tennis camp I attended regularly in Texas, one of the newbie campers told me that he had been a dentist in the army and although he was now in private practice near Philadelphia, one of his patients was non other than Richard Winters, the man Lewis played in BOB. Sadly Lt Winters died recently, a fine man by all accounts.
As for The Other Boleyn Girl, I reckon if you are interested in Henry / The Tudors etc, the film is worth a watch just to tick it off your list.
If nothing else, it depicts the ruthless ambition of Norfolk and Thomas Boleyn and the use of the women in the family as pawns in their greater game very well.
I haven't read the books but agree with the other comments made about the timeline and the "authentic" lighting (or lack of light!). Even many of the costumes seem dark, so they may be wonderful creations but it is difficult to actually see them.
It seems impossible for dramas to be shown in chronological order anymore. I was really confused as to whether something was before Worsley's fall from grace, or after. I know that there were brief text announcements of where the story was, but may have missed some. It would be a refreshing change for a story to start at the beginning and work through to the end!
I haven't read the books but agree with the other comments made about the timeline and the "authentic" lighting (or lack of light!). Even many of the costumes seem dark, so they may be wonderful creations but it is difficult to actually see them.
It seems impossible for dramas to be shown in chronological order anymore. I was really confused as to whether something was before Worsley's fall from grace, or after. I know that there were brief text announcements of where the story was, but may have missed some. It would be a refreshing change for a story to start at the beginning and work through to the end!
I think Rylance's portrayal of Cromwell is an absolute masterclass in acting. Quiet and still and watchful with an air of intelligence and menace. It's much more difficult to do understated than it is to do shouty, arm flailing type acting.
Loved his flickers of humour too when speaking to Mary Boleyn and Henry.
Really looking forward to the rest of the series. In the meantime I'll just have to watch this episode again.
Me three. I've already re-watched episode one and it was just as good, or even better, than the first time. I'll probably see it at least once more before Wednesday.
So far it's the best drama on TV since Happy Valley last year; completely gripping. I think it would have to drastically lose its way to change my opinion.
Comments
This. I have seen him at the Globe several times and he is always superb. His Richard II was memorable - I think there are some clips from the TV broadcast of this on YouTube.
There is nothing worse than poor modern music for destroying a sense of time and place. They do it all the time in the movies and its always sh!te.
ETA: if anyone wants to find out more about the King's attempt to divorce Catherine of Aragon, and Anne Boleyn's downfall, then you can't go wrong with Starkey's vast 'Six Wives of Henry VIII'. Most of its 880 pages are taken up with Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn and the divorce proceedings.
Sounds like it could have been used in last night's script a few times!
My one criticism, though, would be with some of the dialogue itself. While all delivered brilliantly, much of it was exposition rather than conversation. Because the story cuts in at a certain point in the history, it's the dialogue that is used to explain the position of key characters and their motivations as well as important events from before. It's stuff that's necessary for the reader/audience to understand what's going on if they're not au fait with the history, but it wouldn't really come up in natural conversation as it was common knowledge to all parties. It's a shame as it means a great deal of subtle texture that could've featured in some exchanges is immediately lost because of extraneous details.
Otherwise, it was very good.
Absolutely, I thought he was superb.
Really looking forward to the rest of the series. In the meantime I'll just have to watch this episode again.
This
And words cannot describe how disappointed I was and how cheated I felt at the end of this episode. Just over an hour and not a single vampire in sight. Not one.
Masterful punnery.
Re Band of Brothers. I remember discussing this great series with a friend. I was telling her how good I thought the American actor Damian Lewis was. She said he happened to be a friend of hers, and wasn't American at all, but English!!! What a shock. I was convinced he was American.
As for the Other Boleyn Girl and The Tudors, I never got round to seeing either. Maybe just as well going by some of the comments on here.lol
The Other Boleyn Girl was based on Phillipa Gregory's book of the same name. Much as I really love Gregory's books, I would never take them as accurate historically, which is why on the page naming the publishers etc., they are described as 'fiction'.
When I saw Damien Lewis in Band of Brothers I too thought he was American, which proves what a good actor he is!
No, I don't think it's the dire state of the modern attention span. I found it really slow going too. Which surprised me, because Wolf Hall the book vividly gives a sense of how difficult it was live in Tudor times - not just with the court intrigues, but the massive amount of effort required to live, work, travel, eat, stay clean, stay pious, manage a home and family and entourage... even with servants, you got the sense that the key players are all constantly exhausted. There was just so much to do!
This production was like a throwback to 70s costume drama. Long scenes with static actors doing not very much:
- Characters delivering their (sparse) lines with a meaningful pause or two in the middle.
- Liz putting down a book, with that little respectful 'palm' thing actors do, like they're stroking it, they love it so much (I know it was the Bible, but still).
- If there'd been a letter, someone would have looked at the address for 5 seconds before opening it.
...that kind of thing. Drives me mad
Me neither, unfortunately. Rylance's Cromwell is a loveable, pixie-ish character, always wrongfooting the big boorish barons. I expected something nearer to the character in the novel, and certainly less cliched.
No zombies either
No, it won't be a full moon next week.;-)
As someone who found the book hard going, I did enjoy this and am looking forward to the remaining episodes.
On BOB, another co-incidence around the same time as my 'How to stalk Damian Lewis' incident, while I was at a tennis camp I attended regularly in Texas, one of the newbie campers told me that he had been a dentist in the army and although he was now in private practice near Philadelphia, one of his patients was non other than Richard Winters, the man Lewis played in BOB. Sadly Lt Winters died recently, a fine man by all accounts.
As for The Other Boleyn Girl, I reckon if you are interested in Henry / The Tudors etc, the film is worth a watch just to tick it off your list.
If nothing else, it depicts the ruthless ambition of Norfolk and Thomas Boleyn and the use of the women in the family as pawns in their greater game very well.
It seems impossible for dramas to be shown in chronological order anymore. I was really confused as to whether something was before Worsley's fall from grace, or after. I know that there were brief text announcements of where the story was, but may have missed some. It would be a refreshing change for a story to start at the beginning and work through to the end!
BIB - Poor Lucy. She didn't even see it coming.
Me three. I've already re-watched episode one and it was just as good, or even better, than the first time. I'll probably see it at least once more before Wednesday.
So far it's the best drama on TV since Happy Valley last year; completely gripping. I think it would have to drastically lose its way to change my opinion.
The actor played Cromwell the way I imagined him from his portrait.
I've watched it again and it was still good. Looking forward to the rest of it