Wolf Hall on BBC/PBS

uh oh my comment to PeggyC's post appears above it and not below. Also my comment looks like a quote.  Oops. 

Quotes are apparently a little out of whack, but I get it. And yes, I thought she was married, too. That was who Cromwell was talking about when he asked if her husband was "not doing his duty." And she said she didn't like sleeping with her husband, and Cromwell said, "Well, that was a conversation I should not have had."

That small aspect is more bodice-ripper than historical fiction. Ick.

mjc said:

Southern Baron said: "Sorry for the TL;DR"

Never, SB.  Your posts are always worth reading, so far, anyhow ; )

 Well, thanks! I'm sure I can find a way to fall from favor, but I'd like to think it would still be worth something.

Did anyone notice a lady in waiting to Ann Boleyn who looked familiar?  I checked the website and it is Jessica Raine, who played Jenny Lee in Call the Midwife.  Her character in Wolf Hall is Jane Rochford, the wife of George Boleyn, Anne's brother.

First episode I was having difficulty getting into this story. I felt like I was watching Cromwell/Rylance walk from one point to another to deliver information. I could not get emotionally engaged. The lighting is dramatic. The sets and costumes can be sumptious. The last episode, I felt more involved. Now you're telling me Jenny Lee is in the show? I totally missed her. And where do I know the Anne Boleyn actor from?  I love recognizing actors and placing them. I was watching Mr Turner the other day, and was amazed to see the actor who plays George Gently's sidekick on a boat in the background. The part was really just an extra, and it made me wonder if I was mistaken about the actor's identity. 

Cast - actors and characters.

 http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/programs/character-hub/series/wolf-hall/character/lady-anne-boleyn_s533

I had the same feeling about the Anne Boleyn actress, but I wasn't able to find her in anything else I recognized. I will have to try again.

ETA: Eureka! Claire Foy, who plays Anne Boleyn in Wolf Hall on PBS, also played Lady Persephone, the younger sister in the new edition of Upstairs Downstairs. That face and imperious manner were haunting me.

thanks Peggy! You nailed it! Me too! Knew I knew that face!

Those English period pieces are so incestuous! ;-)

The same people turn up all over the place. Funny thing was, today I was watching a new series on Masterpiece Mystery, and I spotted actors/actresses from "Dig," "Game of Thrones," "Outlander" and "Mr Selfridge." I almost didn't keep track of the plot because I was so busy exclaiming, "Oh, my god, it's Mistress Fitzgibbons!"

PeggyC said:

Those English period pieces are so incestuous! ;-)

The same people turn up all over the place. Funny thing was, today I was watching a new series on Masterpiece Mystery, and I spotted actors/actresses from "Dig," "Game of Thrones," "Outlander" and "Mr Selfridge." I almost didn't keep track of the plot because I was so busy exclaiming, "Oh, my god, it's Mistress Fitzgibbons!"

It's interesting and sometimes funny, particularly when an actor you've come to know quite well in a specific role turns up in something VERY different. E.g., I recently realized that the man who plays Lord Loxley in such a wonderfully sinister way on Mr Selfridge also played a really goofy elf in Ella Enchanted. Similarly, the man who plays Howard Stark's earnest and hyper-honorable butler/factotum in Marvel's Agent Carter turned up this season as a horribly nasty villain on the British version of Broadchurch. Both flipped me out completely.

These lucky actors who get the opportunity to play such diverse roles. 

The guy who is burned at the stake in Wolf Hall, was the nerdy inspector type in Doc Marten and had role in sherlock

He was playing Tyndall, a famous (infamous) linguist who wanted to popularize the Bible by translating it into.English.

Last night? The guy burned at the stake was James Bainham, a protestant lawyer friend of Cromwell's who felt compelled to express his religious truths no matter what it cost him, which in this case involved reading aloud from the Bible in English in public. I don't think Tyndale ever returned to England, and in last night's episode he was in exile in Europe but writing secret letters to Cromwell. Tyndale was executed for heresy at some point, but in Europe, not England.

@PeggyC thanks! Big oops! It was a great show, though.

No worries. Tyndale has been talked about quite often in the show, and for the same things that got Bainham killed.

Most strangely, did you notice Cromwell's, shall we say, playfulness with Anne Boleyn,e as she watched from a window when Sir Thomas More offered his resignation to the King? Cromwell drew a line along her throat with his hand, almost as if he knew what lay ahead (pun intended.)

Yes, I saw that.  But didn't he help with the Henry-Anne marriage going forward by scaring off the guy who claimed Anne was pledged to him as his wife?  

When Cromwell is engaging with women, I wonder if he is perhaps flirting, maybe manipulating.  He is hard to read.

I think that was a fantasy on Cromwell's part. Just as I was being really shocked that (a) he would try that and (b) she would allow it, the camera shifted and he was standing by the window frame, a good three feet away from her. So I decided it had just been his imagination.

Yes, but what an imagination...

Peggy I had the same reaction as you at the window scene. Apparently Cromwell was a lusty guy.

Well I don't think it was his imagination, but we'll never really know. It's interesting how rapidly, relatively speaking, he rose up through the 16th century class (caste?) system while so many others were trapped in it.

I thought it was in his imagination, and that it was a foreshadowing.

I've watched it, but it seems to move very slowly.  I find that I'm looking at the settings, whatever old house or castle they are using for the scenes.

The series reminds me of my favorite sight at the Frick Collection - Thomas More and Thomas Cromwell contemplate each other in paintings hung on either side of the fireplace in the living room.  Apparently, Henry Frick enjoyed seeing those two looking at each other, because that's exactly where he hung the paintings when that was his living room in the mansion.

I think Cromwell was imagining that scene, and running his finger across her neck was symbolic of how he really felt about her.

If he had ever laid a finger on Anne Boleyn she would have let him have it. 

mem said:

I think Cromwell was imaging that scene, and running his finger across her neck was symbolic of how he really felt about her.

If he had ever laid a finger on Anne Boleyn she would have let him have it. 

 I was surprised. I hadn't noticed any technique on the show of dramatizing imagined events.

@Springgreen2,

Did you notice how that scene stopped abruptly and Cromwell was back standing in his original spot away from her?  From reading their history, I think they barely tolerated each other, and he was responsible for the accusations against her - he wiped out all the men who were threats to him - diabolical.

Interesting. He made way for the legitimacy of her marriage. You'd think she would appreciate that, but I realize it was much more complicated than that. 

Oh, I cried for poor Cromwell when Henry attacked him. What truly lost souls, for men whose notoriety has reached across five hundred years (almost!)

When his ward suggested they pack up and leave for Europe, I shouted at the screen, "GO! GO!" 

I loved the way his power topped out in the previous episode and he is now on the way down. Well, I didn't love it, as he is being played so sympathetically, but it was beautifully done.

And, history mavens -- WHAT is going on with Cromwell's feelings for Jane Seymour? Has he only been stalking her for political reasons or is his heart engaged??

I'm not a history maven, but Cromwell did say in the last episode that he has to anticipate Henry's love interests/appetites, and Henry is clearly now interested in Jane. However, it was Cromwell who led Henry to Wolf Hall, Jane's family home, probably so he could see her "close up." Since Henry is losing interest in Anne, Cromwell seems to be looking for the next candidate. What job "Crom" has, saving Henry's political interests while scouting for and guiding his romantic/need a son interests. Please correct me if I'm wrong!