Categories Poll Wolf Hall

100 Best Miniseries Of All Time – Aug 17, 2020

Wolf Hall Has It All

by Joni Sweet | Lake Geneva Regional News | August 17, 2020

With shelter-at-home orders still in effect, the pandemic has left us with little more to do than veg out in front of the TV. Data released from Comcast in May showed that the average household watched some 66 hours of television each week—more than an additional full workday’s worth of television than people were watching in March.

But after so many stay-at-home months and the uncertainty of how many more there will be, it might be time for some fresh content to indulge in while noshing on takeout. Enter the miniseries. It might just be the perfect format for quarantine life. Miniseries offer the rich visuals and storytelling of cinema, with the ability to binge-watch a few episodes, like conventional television. Plus, you’ve got decades of compelling miniseries to choose from in just about every genre imaginable.

To help narrow down the choices, Stacker collected IMDb data on all miniseries/limited series on July 29, and ranked them according to their IMDb user rating, ties broken by votes. It also looked at reviews from The New York Times, Rotten Tomatoes, Forbes, NPR, The Guardian, and other media to see what the critics have to say.

It should come as no surprise that BBC’s striking nature documentaries score highly on this list. But scattered throughout the rankings, you’ll discover a mix of historical dramas, shocking true crime documentaries, sci-fi favorites, animated works and shows inspired by comics, and police procedurals that put a new twist on an old-school genre.

From visually-stunning nature documentaries to historical war dramas, here are the top 100 miniseries of all time, according to data from IMDb.

Continue reading 100 Best Miniseries Of All Time – Aug 17, 2020

Categories Wolf Hall

Wolf Hall Sequel Update – Feb 25, 2020

The Mirror and the Light: TV Adaptation Has Begun

by Gingersnap | damian-lewis.com | February 25, 2020

According to this February 25, 2020 article in the Radio Times,

“Wolf Hall director Peter Kosminsky has apparently already been sent the manuscript for Hilary Mantel’s long-awaited sequel The Mirror and the Light – and the work of adapting it for TV has begun. But Piers Wenger, the BBC’s Drama Controller, said he still had no idea when the drama will make it to our screens. At a press event in London, he commented: “I can’t say that now. Genuinely I think we are engaged in those conversations around getting [co-writer] Peter Straughan, Peter Kosminsky, getting the cast back together.”

The Times February 22, 2020 article had this to say when interviewing Hilary Mantel about her third and final installment of the book series,

Continue reading Wolf Hall Sequel Update – Feb 25, 2020

Categories Awards Wolf Hall

Wolf Hall Voted Britain’s Favorite Historical Novel – Jan 20, 2020

Walter Scott Prize

by Eleanor Sharples | Daily Mail | January 20, 2020

When it comes to royal history, you can’t beat the Tudors for scandal and intrigue – though the Windsors are putting in a spirited effort.

So perhaps it should come as little surprise that Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall has been named as Britain’s favourite historical novel.

The Booker Prize-winning book was voted top in a poll, just months before Mantel’s eagerly-awaited conclusion to her Tudor trilogy – The Mirror and the Light – is released.

Wolf Hall, published in 2009, tells the story of Thomas Cromwell’s rise to power in the court of King Henry VIII and has sold 1,027,278 copies across all print editions.

Mantel’s second book in the saga, Bring Up the Bodies, was published in 2012 and also won the Booker Prize.

The novels were successfully adapted for TV with Claire Foy starring as Anne Boleyn, Damian Lewis as Henry VIII and Mark Rylance as Cromwell.

The Walter Scott Prize came up with a shortlist of ten novels to celebrate its tenth anniversary.

In the poll, second place went to Rosemary Sutcliff’s Roman adventure story The Eagle of the Ninth and third to Dorothy Dunnett’s The Game of Kings.

Read the rest of the original article at Daily Mail

Categories Print Media Wolf Hall

Wolf Hall Streaming This November – Nov 7, 2019

Set Your Calendar for November 10

by Stephanie Prange | Media Play News | November 7, 2019

In November PBS Distribution is debuting seven new programs on the PBS Masterpiece Prime Video Channel, including the entire series (all four seasons) of Mr. Selfridge, starring Jeremy Piven and Wolf Hall with Damian Lewis and Mark Rylance.

The six-part miniseries adapted from Hilary Mantel’s best-selling novels Wolf Hall begins streaming November 10!

A historical drama for a modern audience, this unromanticized re-telling lifts the veil on the internal struggles England faced on the brink of Reformation.

From humble beginnings and with an enigmatic past, Thomas Cromwell (Mark Rylance) is the brilliant consigliere to King Henry VIII (Damian Lewis).

Told from Cromwell’s perspective, Wolf Hall follows the complex machinations and back room dealings of this pragmatic and accomplished power broker who must serve king and country while dealing with deadly political intrigue, Henry VIII’s tempestuous relationship with Anne Boleyn (Claire Foy, The Crown) and the religious upheavals of the Protestant reformation.

PBS Masterpiece is $5.99 per month with an Amazon Prime or Prime Video subscription. Check out Amazon.com here.

Read the rest of the original article at Media Play News

Categories Print Media Wolf Hall

TV bosses pounce on delayed final novel in Wolf Hall trilogy

Mantel’s publisher revealed this week that The Mirror & the Light, the concluding part of her series about Thomas Cromwell, will go on sale next March. The author had said in April 2017 that she hoped to have it finished by early 2018.

Wolf Hall, the first book in the series, was published in 2009, followed three years later by Bring Up the Bodies. They were adapted for television by the BBC in 2015, starring Mark Rylance as Thomas Cromwell, Damian Lewis as Henry VIII and Claire Foy as Anne Boleyn. The six-part series was directed by Peter Kosminsky and written by Peter Straughan. Both men are involved with the follow-up, according to the production company Playground.

Continue reading TV bosses pounce on delayed final novel in Wolf Hall trilogy

Categories Announcement News Wolf Hall

Will Damian Be Reprising His Role as Henry VIII? – May 22, 2019

Hilary Mantel’s Conclusion to Wolf Hall Trilogy Set to be Released in 2020

by Arts & Entertainment Staff | BBC | May 22, 2019

Hilary Mantel’s next novel will be published on 5 March 2020, her publishers have announced.

The long-awaited book, the title of which was already known to be The Mirror and the Light, will complete the author’s Thomas Cromwell trilogy.

The first two novels in the trilogy – Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies – each won the Man Booker Prize.

In 2015, Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies were adapted into a Bafta and Emmy award-winning television series, starring Mark Rylance as Cromwell and Damian Lewis as King Henry.

Continue reading Will Damian Be Reprising His Role as Henry VIII? – May 22, 2019

Categories Poll Print Media Wolf Hall

Royals on TV: A Ranking of the Best On-Screen Kings and Queens – March 23, 2019

Damian Lewis as King Henry VIII in Wolf Hall

by Katie Rosseinsky | The Evening Standard |

Whatever your thoughts on the royals, there’s no denying that Britain’s most famous family make good TV.

From Wolf Hall to Victoria to Netflix’s The Crown, many of the most talked-about (and most critically acclaimed) series of recent years have all taken inspiration from royal history, be it centuries old or within living memory.

With the third seasons of Victoria and The Crown coming soon (and amid feverish speculation over future casting decisions for the latter show), the industry’s fascination with what goes on behind palace doors shows no sign of waning.

As the Jenna Coleman-led Victoria returns to the small screen this weekend, we’ve ranked some recent royal performances, in ascending order from the middling to the truly unforgettable.

Continue reading Royals on TV: A Ranking of the Best On-Screen Kings and Queens – March 23, 2019

Categories Print Media Wolf Hall

In the Realm of TV Entertainment, Royal Dramas Reign – Feb 28, 2019

Fans of Royal TV

by Matthew Gilbert | Boston Globe | February 28, 2019

I’m a sucker for the royal dramas. They marry history to warped family dynamics, and they’re generally quite pretty and transporting. They’re like “Succession,” HBO’s Murdoch family send-up, except with a majestic makeover, more servants, and at least one crown. There’s treachery, there are big castles, and at the center of it all there is the distorted psychology of a person who has inherited, not necessarily earned, a position closer to God than we mere mortals.

These shows are just what the Anglophile TV doctor ordered, a spot of tea as the cure for the uncountably many grim crime-solving dramas and superhero spectacles elsewhere on the schedule. For some viewers, royal dramas, like period novel adaptations, are too staid, too mired in the subtleties of their indirect exchanges to be entertaining. But for me, it’s fascinating to watch lives constrained by rigid social and dynastic rules, as messy human needs struggle against ancient policies. Things can get ugly around the palace, for sure, but most of the time the messes are hidden behind an elegant veneer of dignity.

Continue reading In the Realm of TV Entertainment, Royal Dramas Reign – Feb 28, 2019

Categories Locations Guide Print Media Wolf Hall

Seven Historical TV Shows That Have Tourists Flocking to Britain – Aug 14, 2018

Wolf Hall

by Emma Mason | BBC History Magazine | August 14, 2018

Here, we look at seven historical TV dramas that are attracting tourists from Britain and beyond.

#5 Wolf Hall

The six-part BBC adaptation of Hilary Mantel’s Booker Prize-winning novels Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies was a huge hit both on and off-screen. Starring Mark Rylance as Thomas Cromwell and Damian Lewis as King Henry VIII, the 2015 drama sent fans flocking to filming locations including Lacock Abbey in Wiltshire, the real-life Wolf Hall; Chastleton House in Oxfordshire, which portrayed scenes from Cromwell’s childhood in Putney; and Montacute House in Somerset, which was used as the setting for Greenwich Palace – Henry VIII’s main London seat and the site of Anne Boleyn’s arrest in Wolf Hall.

Continue reading Seven Historical TV Shows That Have Tourists Flocking to Britain – Aug 14, 2018

Categories Wolf Hall

Wolf Hall on PBS in Tri-State Area – March 5, 2018

Henry is Back on Masterpiece 

by Gingersnap | damian-lewis.com | March 5, 2018

Attention fans who are in the tri-state viewing area, which includes New York metropolitan , New Jersey and Connecticut: Wolf Hall will air on PBS Masterpiece Channel 13 beginning this Sunday, March 11, 2018 so set your DVR and calendar reminders.

Source: BBC/PBS

Here is Channel 13’s Wolf Hall schedule:

Sunday, March 11
9:00 pm (EST) – Episode One “Three Card Trick”
10:10 pm (EST) – Episode Two “Entirely Beloved”
11:15 pm (EST) – Episode Three “Anna Regina”

Sunday, March 18
9:00 pm (EST) – Episode Four “The Devil’s Spit”
10:05 pm (EST) – Episode Five “Crows”
11:10 pm (EST) – Episode Six “Master of Phantoms”

For more information about your local viewing area, please visit PBS.org.

Categories Print Media Wolf Hall

Wolf Hall Location Guide: Discover the Castles, Medieval Streets and Stately Homes – Sept 8, 2015

28 Historic Properties Were Used in BBC2’s Adaptation of Hilary Mantel’s Novel – Producer Mark Pybus Reveals His Favourites

by Jade Bremner – RadioTimes – September 8, 2015

Source: BBC

Wolf Hall, one of Wolf Hall’s most successful ever period dramas, depicts the meteoric rise of Thomas Cromwell: the son of a lowly blacksmith who rose through the ranks of the Tudor court to become Henry VIII’s trusted advisor.

The series was not just a triumph for its star Mark Rylance – it also showed the wealth and luxury of Tudor Britain like never before.

Director Peter Kosminsky insisted on filming the entire series on location. “All those small details add up and make a significant difference,” explains series producer Mark Pybus. Some of the properties were actually used by Henry VIII five hundred years ago.

Chastleton House, Oxfordshire
Chastleton’s small stone courtyard doubles for Putney, where we see Cromwell as a young man being viciously attacked by his father. The interiors stand in for the Seymour family home, Wolf Hall, where Henry first falls for Jane Seymour. “The Seymours are on the up when we first meet them, before Jane becomes queen,” says Pybus. “It’s one of the only properties in the drama that has a shabby feel. We wanted to get across that they’re not as rich as other people in the show.” It’s possible to visit this ancient house, first built by a rich wool merchant, and now managed by the National Trust.

Continue reading Wolf Hall Location Guide: Discover the Castles, Medieval Streets and Stately Homes – Sept 8, 2015

Categories Media Print Media Wolf Hall

Damian Lewis on Wolf Hall – Interview, AssignmentX, April 5, 2015

Damian Lewis on WOLF HALL – interview

The actor talks playing Henry VIII in the new PBS series

Damian Lewis stars as King Henry VIII on the PBS series WOLF HALL | © 2015 PBSDamian Lewis won an Emmy for his portrayal of Nicholas Brody, a U.S. Marine turned terrorist turned counter-terrorist assassin, during his three years on HOMELAND. The London-born actor, who previously starred in two seasons of LIFE, is now back on television playing no less an historical personage than England’s King Henry VIII in PBS’s six-hour WOLF HALL, which premieres Sunday, April 5. Adapted from Hilary Mantel’s novels, WOLF HALL explores the relationship between Henry and his spy master, the common-born Thomas Cromwell, played by Mark Rylance, as well as the marriage of Henry and second wife Anne Boleyn (Claire Foy). Continue reading Damian Lewis on Wolf Hall – Interview, AssignmentX, April 5, 2015