(Photo: Nick Briggs/Copyright Playground Television (UK) Ltd)
Wolf Hall is returning soon to PBS for its second and final season, and the first photos for the period drama have been released. The new season, Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light, is a follow-up to 2015’s initial season.
Based on Hilary Mantel’s trilogy of novels, the series follows the life of Thomas Cromwell (Mark Rylance), a prominent lawyer who rose from humble beginnings. It also stars Damian Lewis, Jonathan Pryce, Kate Phillips, and Lilit Lesser. Season two will follow the last four years of his life.
PBS revealed more about the return of the series in a press release.
MASTERPIECE PBS and the BBC have revealed a first look at Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light, based on the final novel in Hilary Mantel’s multi award-winning trilogy, as filming comes to a close.
The new pictures show Mark Rylance as Thomas Cromwell, Damian Lewis as King Henry VIII, Kate Phillips as Jane Seymour, Lilit Lesser as Princess Mary, Jonathan Pryce as Cardinal Wolsey, Harriet Walter as Lady Margaret Pole, Harry Melling as Thomas Wriothesley, Thomas Brodie-Sangster as Rafe Sadler, Timothy Spall as the Duke of Norfolk, Alex Jennings as Stephen Gardiner and Charlie Rowe as Gregory Cromwell.
Reuniting the creative team from the BAFTA and Golden Globe winning first series, Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light is directed by seven-time BAFTA award winner Peter Kosminsky (The Undeclared War, The State), adapted for television by Academy award nominee Peter Straughan (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Frank) and produced by Colin Callender’s Playground (The Undeclared War, All Creatures Great and Small) and Company Pictures (Van Der Valk, Blood).
May, 1536. Anne Boleyn, Henry’s second wife, is dead. As the axe drops, Thomas Cromwell emerges from the bloodbath to continue his climb to power and wealth, while his formidable master, Henry, settles to short-lived happiness with his third queen, Jane Seymour. Cromwell, a man with only his wits to rely on, has no great family to back him, and no private army. Navigating the moral complexities that accompany the exercise of power in this brutal and bloody time, Cromwell is caught between his desire to do what is right and his instinct to survive. But in the wake of Henry VIII having executed his queen, no one is safe.
Despite rebellion at home, traitors plotting abroad and the threat of invasion testing Henry’s regime to breaking point, Cromwell’s robust imagination sees a new country in the mirror of the future. All of England lies at his feet, ripe for innovation and religious reform. But as fortune’s wheel turns, Cromwell’s enemies are gathering in the shadows. The inevitable question remains: how long can anyone survive under Henry’s cruel and capricious gaze?
Eagerly awaited and years in the making, Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light will trace the final four years of Cromwell’s life, completing his journey from self-made man to the most feared, influential figure of his time. Cromwell is as complex as he is unforgettable: a politician and a fixer, a diplomat and a father, a man who both defied and defined his age.
Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light is a Playground and Company Pictures co- production for the BBC and MASTERPIECE. The series will be distributed internationally by Banijay Rights. The series is directed by Peter Kosminsky, adapted by Peter Straughan, and produced by Lisa Osborne. Executive Producers are Colin Callender and Noëlette Buckley for Playground, Peter Kosminsky, Lucy Richer for the BBC, and Susanne Simpson for MASTERPIECE.
The series will air on MASTERPIECE on PBS and be available to stream on the PBS App, the PBS MASTERPIECE Prime Video Channel and PBS.org.
Additional photos for the series are below.
(Photo: Nick Briggs/Copyright Playground Television (UK) Ltd)
(Photo: Nick Briggs/Copyright Playground Television (UK) Ltd)
(Photo: Nick Briggs/Copyright Playground Television (UK) Ltd)
(Photo: Nick Briggs/Copyright Playground Television (UK) Ltd)
(Photo: Nick Briggs/Copyright Playground Television (UK) Ltd)
(Photo: Nick Briggs/Copyright Playground Television (UK) Ltd)
(Photo: Nick Briggs/Copyright Playground Television (UK) Ltd)
(Photo: Nick Briggs/Copyright Playground Television (UK) Ltd)
(Photo: Nick Briggs/Copyright Playground Television (UK) Ltd)
What do you think? Are you a fan of this PBS period drama?
I am enjoying the challenge of watching this part of English history. Sometimes the words with English accents are difficult to decipher but I can understand 80% of the story line. I give it a 4 stars instead of 5 because of this challenge.
If you enjoy reading about Wolf’s Hall and fact based espionage thrillers, of which there are only a handful of decent ones, do try reading Bill Fairclough’s Beyond Enkription. It is an enthralling unadulterated fact based autobiographical spy thriller and a super read as long as you don’t expect John le Carré’s delicate diction, sophisticated syntax and placid plots. What is interesting is that this book is so different to any other espionage thrillers fact or fiction that I have ever read. It is extraordinarily memorable and unsurprisingly apparently mandatory reading in some countries’ intelligence agencies’ induction programs. Why? Maybe… Read more »