BBC viewers have been celebrating the return of the much-anticipated Tudor dramaWolf Hall after a nine-year hiatus.
The historical drama, based on Hilary Mantel’s novel of the same name, follows King Henry VIII’s advisor Oliver Cromwell (Mark Rylance) as he climbs towards power and health. In it, the monarch (Damian Lewis) marries Jane Seymour following the beheading of his second wife Anne Boleyn.
Mantel, who died in 2022, released The Mirror and the Light in 2020, following on from Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies – and it tracks the final four years of Henry VIII’s life.
The new season, which aired on Sunday 10 November, has been met with overwhelming praise from critics, while fans have been celebrating the show’s return.
One viewer wrote: “Thank goodness for #WolfHall. #TheMirrorAndTheLight. Superb. Heartbreaking to see Mary shatter with sorrow and relief. What terrifying lives. The tyranny of Henry, superbly played and responded to, all the more grotesque in these troubled times. Well done all, and thank you.”
Another compared the show’s brilliance to the award-winning American detective series The Wire, writing: “The BBC adaption of Wolf Hall is brilliant, like ‘The Wire’ brilliant. The tension is ridiculous. Season two hasn’t disappointed.”
One viewer said the series had won them over, despite being recently disappointed with the BBC’s output.
“The BBC has in my view, been in decline for years. But every now and then, it bangs out a masterpiece. Wolf Hall. A long overdue 2nd season. Superb. Script, acting, set, score are simply outstanding,” they said.
Another fan said: “Well, we’ve all waited a VERY long time for the BBC sequel to the incredible #WolfHall Damien Lewis and Mark Rylance are brilliant. The costumes and locations are perfect and @wisemandebbie‘s music is perfect (again).”
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“Wolf Hall… like being transported into the Tudor world, visually and emotionally. When Mary cried….,” said another fan.
In The Independent’s four-star review of the series return, TV critic Nick Hilton wrote: “This is a story about history, as conducted by long-dead mortals, and about how the urgency of the present fossilises into the immutable past. All that – and it’s also a bloody fun story about trying not to get your head chopped off.”