By Roger Childs

An exemplar in bringing 500-year-old events to life in an entertaining and engrossing way. –Post television and film critic, James Croot

A few years ago BBC television produced a series based on Hilary Mantel’s first two books – Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies – in her superb trilogy of the life of Thomas Cromwell. He was probably the most influential public servant in English history, but he served a very unpredictable monarch – the much-married Henry VIII.

The first series was outstanding and must rank as one of the most brilliant television dramas ever and definitely a match for Alan Sorkin’s extraordinary The West Wing. 

Now after ten years Peter Straughan and Peter Kosminsky are back with a continuation of the riveting costume drama. Once again the two stars are Mark Rylance as Cromwell and Damian Lewis as Henry VIII. The supporting cast is also of high quality.

1536 – a watershed year in England’s history 

It was a time when religion under-pinned English life. Henry has recently broken with the Papacy and made himself the head of the English Church. The main reason being that the pope would not agree to him divorcing his wife Catherine of Aragon who had “failed” to produce a male heir, considered essential for the future stability of the kingdom. Her child Mary was then matched by wife number two Ann Boleyn’s Elizabeth. 

Henry now turns to the attractive Jane Seymour, whose home is Wolf Hall, and Cromwell arranges a third marriage, in the hope that she will bear a son.

So the stage is set for changes at Henry VIII’s court where Thomas Cromwell as Lord Chancellor continues to dominate the King’s Council. To stay in power the son of a blacksmith, lawyer Cromwell must keep ahead of his rivals by maintaining the confidence of the erratic king.

(Unfortunately, without a VPN you need Sky TV to watch Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light. The first episode in the series features on BBC First at 8.30 on Monday 23 June.)