Wolf Hall

Episode 1, Three Card Trick – BBC 2 Wednesday’s 9pm

Based on the Novels by Hilary Mantel

Directed by Peter Kaminsky

Adapted Screenplay by Peter Straughan 

Starring: Mark Rylance, Bernard Hill, Jonathan Pryce, Richard Dillane, Mark Gattiss, Claire Foy

Rating: 3 star

Mark Gattiss being a villain don't you know

"He's behind you!"

If it's Tudor and it stars Henry, the wives, Elizabeth, the Mary's and Lady Jane Grey then I will watch it, read it and delight in it. This is my favourite period of history, it's so rich. I've probably heard all the 'facts', the theory's, seen each character portrayed countless times. I will never have enough of it.

Enter Hilary Mantel.

"Come on, boy, get up. Let’s see you get up. By the blood of creeping Christ, stand on your feet."
Creeping Christ? he thinks. What does he mean? – Wolf Hall

She took a period of history that has been done and done again and she gave us a perspective we'd never considered. And that's the least she did. Her writing is so beautiful, her character insights are complex and she turned Cromwell into a man. She took out the dame and the villain from the pantomime and gave us flawed human beings. The books are simply wonderful.

The saying goes you should never judge a book by its film, so too its TV series. There is nothing of Mantel left. Rylance is wonderful in his performance of Cromwell; he at least seems to care about the original text. I reserve judgement on the other big players in this story (Lewis, notably) as they are yet to properly appear. But there is so much pantomime on show here it could be the recent TV show, 'The Tudors'. The one and only piece of Tudor TV I have been unable to watch: the historical inaccuracies, the handsome prince (even during what should be the fat gout years) - my eyes, MY EYES!

The thing is we don't really need another show on Henry. But to say that is to say we never need to see another Hamlet ever again. The story is too good to not be told and told and retold. However, that doesn't mean you can just tell it. If you are not offering something new then why bother? Personally, I saw Ben Whishaw's Hamlet three times. I never need to see another Hamlet again. And then along came the Factory Theatre with a different Hamlet at each performance (chosen by rock, paper, and scissors each night) and props thrown on stage from the audience (even Phillip Seymour Hoffman popped up on TV wearing a Factory Theatre badge). And so I have watched Hamlet a further four times since that Whishaw production.

The only thing that the production seems to have taken from the books is that Cromwell is the lead character. And sure, that's a new perspective - that was even maybe why the books garnered the attention they did, to begin with. But to say that a new perspective, a new character is the reason they won back to back Booker prizes is to do the writer a serious injustice.

He says, "If I follow the river, is that as good as anything?"  

"Where are you trying to get?"
"To the sea." – Wolf Hall

So what should the TV adaptation of the books be? It can't be a book. To try and compare a book, a play, a film, a radio play and a TV show is to try and compare a banker on the trading floor to a bank clerk. They may be related but they are not the same thing. So what then is my problem? The laziness in which people adapt work, you cannot recreate the books on TV but to ignore them is dull. There is a rhythm to the writing, an atmosphere to the story and we learn it from the inside out of the lead character. Where is that in the TV show?

British TV has become what British theatre was a few years ago (and still is in some Theatre's and institutes) - Static.

We seem to be stuck in the Kitchen sink again, yes - yes, we have Shakespeare and John Osborne but did it all end there? Where is the innovation? Where are the new Writers and Actors and Directors and Directors of photography?

Of course I'll be watching on Wednesday (BBC 2, 9pm) and Henry will once again thrill me with his tale because he is Henry. But is that enough? Are we happy to just re-tell?

For a moment, Morgan Williams looks sorry it has come to this. – Wolf Hall

It's always the same names and faces, bar Rylance who is relatively new to the public consciousness and blazing a trail. But why does it take so long for a new face? How long for a new writing style, a new way of telling a story reaches TV?

How long before British drama schools stop reproducing actors who can speak v.e.r.y c.l.e.a.r.l.y but haven't got a clue about how to take a line from a page and live it? Mainly because when you come from a wealthy family, through private school and waltz into a drama school that likes the kids with money to fill their pockets, you haven't really lived enough to see behind the line on the page.

How long before it all stops being so smug and into itself?

Hilary Mantel was writing away for years and then came blazing into the greater consciousness with a new style, story and flair. And now we can look and see she was always there, doing the same thing. Her moment came when she turned that talent towards one of our most popular stories. Isn't it a shame we couldn't have used the same story for something more than just British actors s.p.e.a.k.i.n.g clearly and saying what they should be playing underneath "I'm a villain don't you know: mwah ha ha." (strokes beard) - with the exception of mumbling, human Rylance. 

Imagine if you went through life being as obvious about your intentions as some actors are on TV (and stage). Like the guy from Notting hill (Gattiss) who played the nice guy married to the girl in the wheel chair. Oh god, I've just had a flash back - remember when they all sat round that table discussing how dreadful their lives were and the Actress thought the fact that she chose not to eat in order to be a vacuous Hollywood star in crap movies but rich as hell was as depressing as the woman in the wheel chair who couldn't have children? Yeah. Well now he's not nice, he's positively villainous. Villainous I tell you. Wink wink, nudge, nudge - HE'S BEHIND YOU! - With an axe.

I know a wealth of talented actors who couldn't only play the subtleties of the complex characters as they appear in Mantel's Wolf Hall but who could also write the screenplay so that it at least resembled the book it came from. Who could shake the TV format into something new, exciting, innovative and they could do it for a much smaller budget. Where are they? Serving you coffee in Starbucks*.

“Look at him— if it were up to me, I’d have a war just to employ him." – Wolf Hall

Well done the BBC.

*Other coffee shops are available