James Delingpole James Delingpole

How did Wolf Hall escape the attentions of the BBC’s diversity commissars?

Unlike with most historical dramas on the BBC, there were no moments in this where I wanted to throw rocks at the screen

Jewel in the crown: Timothy Spall as the Duke of Norfolk and Mark Rylance as Thomas Cromwell in the new series of BBC1’s Wolf Hall. Credit: BBC/Playground Entertainment/Nick Briggs  
issue 23 November 2024

Wolf Hall is one of the few remaining jewels in the BBC’s tarnished crown. Presumably that’s why it was allowed to get off relatively lightly from the attentions of the Beeb’s resident diversity commissars.

Yes, I recognise that I may be a terrible reactionary, completely out of tune with the times. But I think I speak for quite a few of us when I say that I was grateful in the first episode to notice only two discreet gestures towards anachronistic casting: one lady in waiting and one member of the king’s council.

It seemed to strike an acceptable balance between verifiable historical incident and dramatic licence

As I keep saying, whatever you think about ‘representation’, what matters far more in period drama is authenticity. If you’re going to go to all the trouble and expense of recreating Tudor England – sumptuous locations from Hampton Court to Montacute House and Penshurst Place, fabrics so rich they could have jumped out of a Holbein portrait – you need to get the casting right too.

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