| Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Historical drama |
| Based on | The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel |
| Written by | Peter Straughan |
| Directed by | Peter Kosminsky |
| Starring | |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language | English |
| Production | |
| Executive producers |
|
| Producer | Lisa Osbounre |
| Production companies | Company Pictures Playground |
Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light is an upcoming historical drama television series. It is a second adaptation by Peter Straughan of the Wolf Hall novels by Hilary Mantel, and covers the The Mirror and the Light , the final novel in the trilogy. It has Peter Kosminsky returning to direct and Mark Rylance returning in the lead role from the 2015 series Wolf Hall .
The series begins with Thomas Cromwell navigating the Tudor court in the aftermath of the 1536 execution of Henry VIII second wife, Anne Boleyn and the monarch about to marry his third wife, Jane Seymour. [1]
In March 2022, Mark Rylance confirmed that a second series was in development with scripts being worked on for six episodes and Peter Kosminsky set to return as director. [2] Hilary Mantel was acting as consultant on the script adaptation at the time of her death in September 2022. Kominsky, who worked closely with Mantel on the first series and had received instalments of the original text as Mantel was writing the third instalment of her historical trilogy, released in 2020, said that the series would continue as a “memorial” to the author. [3] Peter Straughan has again adapted the book for the series, as he had in season one, Playground and Company Pictures producing once more. [4] In November 2023, it was reported that broadcaster’s Masterpiece PBS and the BBC were set to begin production on the series. [5] It is produced by Lisa Osborne and executive produced by Colin Callender and Noëlette Buckley for Playground, Kosminsky, Lucy Richer for the BBC and Susanne Simpson for Masterpiece. [6]
As well as Mark Rylance returning as Thomas Cromwell, Damian Lewis also returns as King Henry VIII and Jonathan Pryce as Cardinal Wolsey. Kate Phillips will also reprise her role as Henry VIII’s third wife, Jane Seymour, with Lilit Lesser as Princess Mary. [7] The following month it was reported that Timothy Spall, Harriet Walter and Harry Melling had been added to the cast, [8] as well as Will Tudor, Will Keen and Viola Prettejohn. [9] The casting of the courtiers was more diverse for Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light. [10]
The casting of Egyptian-British Amir El-Masry as Thomas Wyatt was criticized by journalist Petronella Wyatt.
Filming got underway in late 2023. [11] Filming was reported at Berkeley Castle in February 2024. [12] The following month, filming took place at Wells Cathedral. [13]
The series is reportedly set to arrive in the UK on BBC One and BBC iPlayer in late 2024 or early 2025. [14]
Thomas Wriothesley, 1st Earl of Southampton, KG was an English peer, secretary of state, Lord Chancellor and Lord High Admiral. A naturally skilled but unscrupulous and devious politician who changed with the times, Wriothesley served as a loyal instrument of King Henry VIII in the latter's break with the Catholic church. Richly rewarded with royal gains from the Dissolution of the Monasteries, he nevertheless prosecuted Calvinists and other Protestants when political winds changed.
Thomas Brodie-Sangster is an English actor. He is known for playing Sam in Love Actually (2003), Simon in Nanny McPhee (2005), Ferb in Phineas and Ferb (2007–2015), Jojen Reed in Game of Thrones (2013–2014), Newt in the Maze Runner film series (2014–2018), and Benny Watts in the Netflix miniseries The Queen's Gambit (2020), for which he was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie.
Mark Smeaton was a musician at the court of Henry VIII of England, in the household of Queen Anne Boleyn. Smeaton, together with the Queen's brother George Boleyn, Viscount Rochford, Henry Norris, Francis Weston and William Brereton was executed for treason and adultery with Queen Anne.
Sir David Mark Rylance Waters is an English actor, playwright and theatre director. He is known for his roles on stage and screen having received numerous awards including an Academy Award, three BAFTA Awards, two Olivier Awards and three Tony Awards. In 2016 he was included in the Time 100 list of the world's most influential people. In 2017 he was made a knight by Queen Elizabeth II.
Benjamin Charles Miles is an English actor, best known for his starring role as Patrick Maitland in the television comedy Coupling, from 2000 to 2004, as Montague Dartie in The Forsyte Saga, from 2002 to 2003, as propagandist and television executive Roger Dascombe in 2005 film V for Vendetta, as Peter Townsend in the Netflix drama The Crown (2016–2017) and George in episode 8 "The One That Holds Everything" in the TV drama The Romanoffs (2018).
Dame Hilary Mary Mantel was a British writer whose work includes historical fiction, personal memoirs and short stories. Her first published novel, Every Day Is Mother's Day, was released in 1985. She went on to write 12 novels, two collections of short stories, a personal memoir, and numerous articles and opinion pieces.
Peter Kosminsky is a British writer, director and producer. He has directed Hollywood movies such as White Oleander and television films like Warriors, The Government Inspector, The Promise, Wolf Hall and The State.
Sir Colin Nigel Callender is a British television, film and theater producer. He is the CEO at Playground Entertainment, a production company with offices in New York and London.
Wolf Hall is a 2009 historical novel by English author Hilary Mantel, published by Fourth Estate, named after the Seymour family's seat of Wolfhall, or Wulfhall, in Wiltshire. Set in the period from 1500 to 1535, Wolf Hall is a sympathetic fictionalised biography documenting the rapid rise to power of Thomas Cromwell in the court of Henry VIII through to the death of Sir Thomas More. The novel won both the Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. In 2012, The Observer named it as one of "The 10 best historical novels".
Bring Up the Bodies is an historical novel by Hilary Mantel, sequel to the award-winning Wolf Hall and part of a trilogy charting the rise and fall of Thomas Cromwell, the powerful minister in the court of King Henry VIII. It won the 2012 Booker Prize and the 2012 Costa Book of the Year. The final novel in the trilogy, The Mirror and the Light, was published in March 2020.
The Mirror & The Light is a historical novel by the English writer Hilary Mantel. Following Wolf Hall (2009) and Bring Up the Bodies (2012), it is the final instalment in her trilogy charting the rise and fall of Thomas Cromwell, minister in the court of King Henry VIII, covering the last four years of his life, from 1536 until his death by execution in 1540.
Wolf Hall is a British television serial first broadcast on BBC Two in January 2015. The six-part series is an adaptation of two of Hilary Mantel's novels, Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies, a fictionalised biography documenting the rapid rise to power of Thomas Cromwell in the court of Henry VIII through to the death of Sir Thomas More, followed by Cromwell's success in freeing the king of his marriage to Anne Boleyn. Wolf Hall was first broadcast in April 2015 in the United States on PBS and in Australia on BBC First. It was reported in 2022 that a second series, covering the final novel in the trilogy, was in pre-production, with Mark Rylance and director Peter Kosminsky returning.
"Three Card Trick" is the first episode of the BBC Two series Wolf Hall. It was first broadcast on 21 January 2015.
Playground Entertainment is a television, film and theatre production company with offices in New York and London, founded in 2012 by Sir Colin Callender, former President of HBO Films.
"Entirely Beloved" is the second episode of the BBC Two series Wolf Hall. It was first broadcast on 28 January 2015.
"Anna Regina" is the third episode of the BBC Two series Wolf Hall. It was first broadcast on 4 February 2015.
Hannah Steele is an actress notable for her roles in Wolf Hall (2015), The Night Manager (2016), Black Mirror episode: "Shut Up and Dance" (2016), Darkest Hour (2017). Other credits include Doctors (2010), Casualty, The Young Karl Marx (2017), Love, Lies and Records (2017), and A Christmas Number One (2021).
Wolf Hall Parts One & Two is a two-part play based on Hilary Mantel's novels Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies, adapted for the stage by Mike Poulton. Set in the period from 1500 to 1535, Wolf Hall is a sympathetic fictionalised biography documenting the rapid rise to power of Thomas Cromwell in the court of Henry VIII through to the death of Sir Thomas More.
The Mirror and the Light is a play by Hilary Mantel and Ben Miles based on Mantel's 2020 book of the same name. It is the third part to Wolf Hall Parts One & Two which is a double-bill play based on Mantel's novels Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies.
Thomas Cromwell was Chief Minister to King Henry VIII of England from 1534 to 1540. He played a prominent role in the important events of Henry's reign, including the king's divorce from Catherine of Aragon, the execution of Anne Boleyn, the marriage to Anne of Cleves, the Dissolution of the monasteries, and the English Reformation. These dramatic events have provided the inspiration for plays, novels and films from shortly after his death until modern times.
