"Wolf Hall" on PBS?

I confess I was unable to get interested in Hilary Mantel's "Wolf Hall" or "Bring Up the Bodies," though my husband read both avidly.

Watched the first episode on PBS Sunday and found it underwhelming. This is all stuff we already know, except that we're watching it around corners with Cromwell, who comes off as a cipher.

Anyone care to discuss?

I actually liked the first episode as it established the personalities of the main characters. Thomas More seems a nasty piece of work -unlike the noble man in A Man for All Seasons. Cromwell is grim as a result of his early beatings by his father and the loss of his wife and daughters to the "sweating sickness". I also liked the character of Anne Boleyn- imperious and sure of her power.
In the book I found the character of Henry to be threatening in a quiet way. The PBS episode makes him a little more regal and someone to watch.

>2 torontoc: Did you find it helped to have read the books to understand the series, which seems to have started in media res?

The scene between Cromwell and his daughter (Grace?), who wanted to learn Greek was engaging, but his family appeared and disappeared so quickly, and his response to their deaths so laconic, I found it hard to feel much of anything.

I think the actor who played Thomas More played a bad vampire on the UK version of "Being Human." As a former communicant in the C of E and now a Roman Catholic, I found it interesting casting :-)

I did think that reading the books did help. I must ask one of my friends who has not read the books but did see the series- what she thought.