After a gap of nine years, Wolf Hall returned to our screens this week with a second series based on the last of the late Hilary Mantel’s trilogy of historical novels, The Mirror and the Light. Almost a decade may have elapsed off screen, but on screen the continuation is seamless.
It is 1536, and England, we are told, “is in uproar”. Previously seen scenes of the brutal execution of Anne Boleyn (Claire Foy) are intercut with new images of Henry VIII (Damien Lewis), his expression hard and unmerciful, donning ceremonial robes for his marriage to Jane Seymour (Kate Phillips).
Historically, there was more than a week between the two events, but here we cut directly from Henry as he places the ring on the finger of his new bride, to the recovery of Anne’s bloody severed head by her ladies-in-waiting.
