Wolf Hall

[mikey4444]

"Wolf Hall" is on BBC One tonight at 21:00. I found the books to be all but unreadable, but I am looking forward to this dramatisation. Anybody else planning to watch ?

[askyourgran]

I've heard the books are difficult to read, and now I'm not sure I want to watch the recording of Wolf Hall, which is a shame because I thought the Tudor era was the most interesting period in history. Might give it a try later.

[tonyav]

ladybirder
Tony give it a go and make your own mind up. Try and stick with it, I think it got better the longer I watched it:-)



Will do, ladybirder. Probably watch it sometime over the weekend.

[ladybirder]

Retrocop we are not alone. It gets a good review in the Telegraph and if you scroll right down most readers seem to have loved it.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/tv-and-radio-reviews/11361237/Wolf-Hall-episode-one-review.html

[BlackadderV]

This reminds me of Ingmar Bergman and other producers of avant-garde films. The prevailing wisdom seems to be that if I cannot understand it it must be really clever. Gilbert and Sullivan debunked such pretentiousness in their operetta Patience, well over a hundred years ago.

[retrocop]

Ladybirder
Thank you for the link. I also enjoyed the laconic wisecracks and cheeky disrespect by Thomas Cromwell. Obviously a man of courage and principals.

[BlackadderV]

Excuse me, but Tony Blair and Peter Mandelson combined had more courage and principles than Thomas Cromwell.

[retrocop]

BA
Please don't spoil my nights sleep by mentioning filth before I retire to bed. Night Night. :-)

[retrocop]

Tony Blair and his sidekick never entertained me. Far from it. Wolf Hall did.

[ladybirder]

Blackadder I have no idea what you are on about. It was easy to understand, especially after watching Missing. Now that was hard.

[mikey4444]

Ladybirder....I liked it very much. The acting was superb, especially Jonathan Pryce. It looked marvelous as well....very atmospheric and brave of the BBC to do so much filming in such low light. I have a TV camera operator as a friend, and she will tell you its terribly difficult to film by candle light. All those previous attempts at the period of history, where every indoor scene is flooded in light now look so wrong. I can remember my history Teacher telling me when I was a young lad that people in that era went to bed soon after dark, as candles were terribly expensive, and he was right !

Can't understand the complaints about a poor script...this wasn't Blackadder and nor was it meant to be ! But its obvious that this is a Mantel-sourced adaption. I found it impossible to read "Wolf Hall" and God knows I tried....3 times, at least ! I wish she wouldn't keep dashing backwards and forwards in time....very confusing !

One aspect of the book shone through .....Cromwells awful time as a boy, with such an abusive father. Well done to the trainer of that lovely white horse, by the way !

Looking forward to next week !

PS...Tonyav....don't take any notice of us lot on here...watch it and make your own mind up !

PPS.....I agree with Retrocop (!)...very well done to the BBC !

[lady-janine]

I've read the books (more than once) and enjoyed them. Watched last night and hop is repeated so I can watch again. Very good. Excellent. Well done bbc.

[mikey4444]

Lady-Janine...I am waiting the Readers Digest to bring out condensed version of Mantels' books ! I found it all but impossible to get through the dense undergrowth of her writing style.

[smoneybags]

I have Wolf Hall as an audiobook and found it very hard going to listen to. In fact I gave it up after about half an hour.

[VHG]

I recorded it last night and watched about 20 minutes but then went to bed.

I will go back to it again and rewatch it all, but I can understand why some people gave up on it after 15 minutes.

The filming in candlelight gave everything a dark mood, and the script was rather slow and laborious.

I did not feel the actor playing Thomas Cromwell (Mark Rylance) put enough charisma into the "lead" character in a drama. This was probably deliberate but it made Cromwell seem dull and uninteresting.

I saw Mark Rylance in La Bete on stage in London a few years ago and he was brilliant, but in this he seems to lack any sort of personality (deliberate I assume).

I can see this being hard going for many people and you probably need to be a real "tudor" buff to stick with it.

The shame is that the US series "The Tudors" went too far the other way, making the whole thing in to rather silly "soap".

[LyndaB]

I have read both Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies. I found Wolf Hall to be very hard work indeed. I particularly disliked the 'he said this' and 'he said that' then 'he said something else' without the narrative making clear which 'he' is saying what. So I was looking forward to the television adaptation, and I have to say I loved it. A terrific cast, a story you couldn't make up, and Damien Lewis in a codpiece - what's not to like? Absolutely fantastic!

[gingejbee]

I'm not really that much into history, and was fully expecting to give up after 10 minutes...but really enjoyed it.
I suspect those who didn't like it would be more suited to watching "Benidorm" and similar stuff.

[Barsel]

I've been really looking forward to watching this and heard so many good things about it so perhaps I was expecting too much. I felt the whole thing was too slow due to the lingering on people when they weren't actually talking, I'm hoping there will be some action in future episodes. Now Damien Lewis has finally made an appearance, perhaps it will improve as I find him very watchable. I did notice that someone said the 'F ' word, possibly Cromwell,and I did wonder if that would be a word that would have been used in those days? I will keep watching though as I'm sure it will get better.

[Svejk]

Its a hey-nonny-no from me.

[jourdain2]

Well, I enjoyed it. It was rather dark at times (but our ancient TV often makes things very dark). I also appreciated the insight into Cromwell's upbringing. Nothing is ever perfect, but well certainly be watching the rest of the series.

[retrocop]

We were warned, in the Mail on Sunday I think, that the lighting would be deliberately subdued to convey the only light available at the time during darkness.I think it worked very well. I thought we would be treated to total darkness and listening to dreadful sound and dialogue. The sound was good unlike The Great Fire which I had to give up on even with the volume on Max.
I thought ,IMO, it conveyed the atmosphere very well.