Wolf at the Door

If you've read Hilary Mantel's two Booker Prize-winning novels, Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies, about the relationship between Thomas Cromwell, Cardinal Woolsey and King Henry VIII, you might appreciate knowing that they've been turned in to a six-hour mini-series by the BBC and will be shown on PBS.  All the better, they premiere in less than two months, on April 5, running as part of Masterpiece Classic on Sunday nights.

It's an impressive cast.  Mark Rylance, a two-time Tony Award-winner for Best Actor in a Play, stars as Cromwell.  You might recall Rylance from a couple of postings on these pages about his acceptance speeches, which are arguably the greatest, in an intentionally bizarre way, and funniest (for my taste) in the history of the Tonys.  (You can see them here and here.)  King Henry is played by Damian Lewis, from Band of Brothers and Homeland.  And Cardinal Woolsey will be played by Jonathan Pryce, who starred on Broadway in the original production of Miss Saigon.  I was also really pleased to see that one of my favorite, little-known actresses, Claire Foy, plays Anne Bolelyn.  She's probably best-known to U.S. audiences in the great Emmy-winning Masterpiece Classic adaption of Dickens' Little Dorrit.

PBS has an extended, 4-minute "First Look" of the production on their website, and it looks wonderful.  Unfortunately, I can't embed it, but you can see it by clicking here.