Revisit the life of Thomas Cromwell in 'Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light'

It’s been nearly 10 years since Peter Kosminsky first brought Hilary Mantel’s novels to the TV screen with “Wolf Hall.”

The director and executive producer returns with Masterpiece’s “Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light” at 8 p.m. Sunday, March 23, on New Mexico PBS, channel 5.1. The series is also available to stream on the PBS app. A six-episode series airs a new episode each Sunday through April 27.

“Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light” traces the final years of Thomas Cromwell’s, played by Mark Rylance, life and his journey to become the most influential figure of his time under the notorious King Henry VIII, played by Damian Lewis.

Kosminsky said “The Mirror and the Light” is based on the last novel that Mantel wrote before she died in 2022.

“It picks up directly from the moment when the earlier books end: the day of Anne Boleyn’s execution,” he says. “So, it was a challenge for us having around a decade between when we finished shooting the original ‘Wolf Hall’ series and when we started filming ‘The Mirror and the Light,’ yet the story was carrying on as if uninterrupted. Having said that, the two TV series cover a 10-year period in Thomas Cromwell’s life, so at some point during the series, Thomas Cromwell and the other characters really need to age.”

During the time between series, Kosminsky says Mantel was sending him the novel as she was writing it in 100-page installments.

“We were having a dialogue before she submitted the novel to the publisher,” he says. “So, I have been working on this pretty much since we delivered and transmitted the original ‘Wolf Hall’ series back in 2015. I have never left the show.”

Kosminsky is obviously drawn to the rich, captivating story — which is why he’s back in the director’s chair again.

“It is a complex, multifaceted piece of writing. But if I were to ask myself what is it about ‘Wolf Hall’ that inspires me the most, it’s something that Hilary said to me right at the very beginning of the journey – ‘remember that these characters don’t know that they’re characters in history. To them, they are living their lives just as you or I, in what is, for them, the present day,’ ” he says. “Anne Boleyn doesn’t know that she’s one of six wives, she doesn’t know that she will be beheaded by a swordsman from Calais. She sees herself as a reformer, as somebody who is living in a fantastically exciting time in history when there’s significant religious and political change. I’ve focused on that and tried to get that sense of now into the way we have brought this extraordinary literary achievement to the screen by shooting it in a very contemporary, documentary style, with handheld cameras and a sense of discovering this world with Thomas Cromwell. And it all flows from that original comment that Hilary made to me.”

“Cromwell is a highly contemporary figure,” he says. “He’s not a cardinal or an aristocrat. He’s an ordinary man placed in an extraordinary situation, perhaps the first professional civil servant. He rises to the second most powerful man in the kingdom after Henry. But that turns out to be a terrifying, dangerous position in the court of such a capricious monarch. In a very real sense, ‘The Mirror and the Light’ is a portrait of what it is like to be at the beck and call of a despot, a man whose ego is completely out of control.”

Over the course of his career, Kosminsky has worked with the best of the best when it comes to actors and cast. He admits working with Rylance and Lewis didn’t change his style much.

“I have a structure to my day during filming – I arrive very early, grab a quick bite of breakfast and then I go into makeup. It’s a good moment to talk to the cast because they’re usually quite relaxed so it’s a good moment for me to talk to them about the scene ahead,” he explains.

“Sometimes Damian and Mark had found lines in the novel – and this is a very faithful adaptation – that we had not included. Of course, I won’t always agree to include it, but my general instinct is that if an actor, in preparing for the scene, feels that additional lines would enhance what they’re trying to do and they can deliver it in a way that doesn’t feel written, I’d like to include it.”

Revisit the life of Thomas Cromwell in 'Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light'