• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, November 6, 2024

The announcement was briefly inserted at the end of the “Wolf Hall” episode that aired Sunday night on PBS.

Ten years after “Wolf Hall” premiered on PBS in 2015, the third novel in Hilary Mantel’s spectacular Henry VIII trilogy has been adapted for a miniseries coming soon.

No other details were given, although the news that the new series would be made has already been out for a year. An announcement was made last November.

But last weekend’s onscreen announcement was especially appropriate because PBS has been whetting appetites by rerunning “Wolf Hall.” 

Two of the six episodes having already aired on October 27 and November 3. Episode 3 airs this weekend at 10 p.m. Eastern. 

No airdate was given in the brief announcement, but the TV Blog has learned that the new miniseries, “The Mirror and the Light,” will premiere on Sunday, March 23, on “PBS Masterpiece.”

And what a masterpiece the first one was. This is just one man’s opinion (and likely the opinion of many others too, who were fortunate enough to have seen it), but the original six-episode “Wolf Hall” miniseries may have been the most sensational TV production anywhere in the entire decade of the 2010s.

“Game of Thrones”? “Wolf Hall” is a game of throne (singular) like no other in its depiction of the subtle and deadly politics of the court of King Henry.

The late Hilary Mantel wrote the three historical-fiction novels on which the two miniseries are based, and in the process, became a literary legend. 

When she died in 2022 at the age of 70, she was honored with tributes everywhere. Her books were celebrated as generational. Indeed, many who read them had never read anything like them, your TV blogger included.

Somehow, she had found a way to write about the life of 16th-century England in such detail -- physical, emotional and cultural -- that it felt like you were transported right into it. The television adaptation of “Wolf Hall” was no less literary. 

Incredibly, the principals of the first miniseries were somehow all available to come back after so many years to assume their roles.

The most notable of the returns are Mark Rylance (above photo left), as Thomas Cromwell, the central character in the books; and Damian Lewis (above right as King Henry).

Also returning are director Peter Kosminsky and writer Peter Straughan, who adapted the books for television.

In the role of the central character, Rylance is the show’s central actor too. As Thomas Cromwell (1485-1540), Rylance gives one of the finest performances I have ever seen on television, period. He is mesmerizing.

Cromwell was a lawyer during the reign of Henry VIII who rose to become the king’s chief advisor. Henry was one of England’s longest-reigning monarchs. He ruled for 38 years (1509-47).

The son of a village blacksmith, Cromwell had none of the background, property or titles of the well-born.

As a result, the titled classes who crowded King Henry’s court detested Cromwell for his access to the king and conspired against him.

Rylance’s Cromwell is a tight-lipped courtier who measures his words carefully. Some of Rylance’s best scenes and pieces of acting are when he says nothing, but in close-ups of his face, you can practically hear the wheels turning in his head.

The original “Wolf Hall” miniseries encompassed the first two books in the Mantel trilogy, “Wolf Hall” (first published in 2009) and “Bring Up the Bodies” (2012). They dealt principally with the story of Anne Boleyn.

The third and final novel, “The Mirror and the Light,” was published in 2020. The book told the story of Cromwell’s relationship with the King over the ensuing years.

It has been a great experience to see “Wolf Hall” again. It is too bad that we must wait until next March to see “The Mirror and the Light,” but I am certain it will be worth the wait.