
Back when it originally aired, we sang the praises of Wolf Hall (2015). Specifically, we previewed the costumes and the news and then podcasted about the series (adding our costume resources, as we used to do). Plus we wrote about a very few costume inaccuracies and historical inaccuracies, we discussed Jane Seymour specifically and the gentry women’s costumes overall. But we never did a proper deep-dive blog post looking at all the costumes in this series. Now with part two, The Mirror and the Light, having premiered in the U.K. and coming to the U.S. on PBS in March 2025, well, it is time!
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Find this frock flick at:
Can you please make the second The Buccaneers 2024 post available, since it was posted on this date a year ago?
It’s coming tomorrow, don’t worry!
Having already seen THE MIRROR AND THE LIGHT to the bitter end, I would like to say how shocked I was by that sex scene between Cromwell and Lady Mary.
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No, no, you’ll just have to watch the show and find out for yourselves!👹
You’re thinking of “The Tudors,” right?
No, I’m thinking “Well I could give a serious, thoughtful summary of my
opinion on this series OR I could make some mischief.”
Guess which option I went with.😉
On a more serious note, I’ll take this opportunity to say that if you liked WOLF HALL then you’ll enjoy this production for exactly the same reasons (Though for my money it felt a little too much like ‘More of the same’, even down to using actual footage from the original series).
I’m also a little sad the production didn’t do anything especially interesting with the non-white actors cast in this series: given the themes of ‘New men vs Old blood’ and ‘England against the World’ throughout the novels, entirely colour-blind casting strikes me as a waste when a more tactical deployment could have helped sell Thomas Cromwell as a quietly subversive influence.
Also, the re-casting of Eustace Chapuys absolutely hurts this series: the new actor is nowhere near the equal and opposite to Cromwell that the production needs him to be: this is, however, the only one of the re-castings that actively Does Not Work and some of the others are active improvements (Mr Timothy Spall somehow manages to be even better as Norfolk than the late, great Mr Bernard Hill).
Also, this is the series where Mr Damien Lewis REALLY sold his Henry VIII, so we have that to thank it for.
All in all I’d call THE MIRROR AND THE LIGHT a solid sequel that fails to be outstanding because it seems to merely continue, rather than build upon what the first series did so well.
My abiding impression might well be that it sticks too close to Cromwell and leaves quite a lot of the most interesting business offscreen as a result (But then I’m not this series’ target audience, so spending more time with Cromwell is not my idea of a Good Time, especially when the series politely ignores quite a bit of the pettiness he shows even in the novel itself).
I’m so torn as whether to fire up VPN & try to watch Mirror now or wait till it’s on PBS! VPN tends to be flakey & I don’t want this messed up, so I’ll prob. wait. But it’s going to be hard
Clearly the only sensible way to resolve this doubt is to practice some good old-fashioned Sortes (It worked for Brother Cadfael and might even work for you!).
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Curse you, lack of Ecclesiastical smileys!