The Mirror and the Light, the new series of Wolf Hall, picks up right where the first series finished in 2015, with a twist. We see Anne Boleyn. The most famous thing that was ever done to her is about to happen. Now, unlike in the first series, we see a companion piece: King Henry VIII marrying his new bride Jane Seymour. It’s an artful way to bring us back up to speed, but make it new. The viscerally shocking Anne scene is made even more grubby. From this high starting point, the series powers on.
The 16th century world of the Tudors is conjured beautifully — and brightly. After complaints that the first season was dark and hard to follow (one might think the blame lay with the Tudors for failing to develop electric lighting, but there you go) the first episode of this series is, by contrast, Wolf Hall meets Blackpool Illuminations.
