We’re closing 2024 by republishing our five most-read articles of the year. Here’s No. 3: James Delingpole’s article from November on the new BBC Wolf Hall.
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.
It seemed to strike an acceptable balance between verifiable historical incident and dramatic licence
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.
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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