– Tudor Elvis –
by Bryan Alexander | USA Today | March 30, 2025
For Damian Lewis, just standing for two weddings of King Henry VIII in “Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light” was a daylong royal marathon.
The English monarch is remembered for having six wives, requiring the long-awaited sequel series to PBS Masterpiece’s “Wolf Hall” (Sundays, 9 ET/PT) — shot entirely in stunning centuries-old locations — to feature two very different weddings.
With access to historic Wells Cathedral granted for one day, Lewis, 54, packed in two royal reboots — his happy betrothal to Wife No. 3 Jane Seymour (“Peaky Blinders” star Kate Phillips) and the chilly ceremony with Wife No. 4, Anne of Cleves (Dana Herfurth).
“I was getting married an awful lot,” Lewis says. “There’s the enthusiastic marriage to Jane Seymour. She was terrified of him, with some justification, since he just chopped his previous wife’s head off (Anne Boleyn). Then there’s Anne of Cleves. The marriages required a very different mindset.”
Crafting the six-episode sequel, a decade after 2015’s “Wolf Hall,” based on Hilary Mantel’s Booker Prize-winning historical novels, required an evolving all-star cast. Claire Foy makes an early exit as second wife Anne Boleyn, while Mark Rylance fights to literally keep his head attached as the series’ central, embattled royal adviser Thomas Cromwell. It also demanded a trove of historic locations: Think the splendor of Netflix’s “The Crown,” but set when the monarch has beheading powers.
“This was 100% filmed on location. There was no studio whatsoever,” says Rebecca Pearson, the location manager who spent a year securing gems such as Haddon Hall, the setting of a frolicsome party scene featuring Henry dancing in a disguise. The Tudor-palooza teems with so many masked revelers that special supports were placed below the floors of the 11th-century structure.
Famed Hampton Court Palace, which was brought to grandeur by Henry’s royal adviser Thomas Wolsey (Jonathan Pryce), looms large in “The Mirror and the Light.” Wolsey died in Season 1, but not before bequeathing his showcase to Henry, who returned the favor by accusing his chief minister of treason. The Hampton Court Great Hall scenes showing courtiers among the grand tapestries that Henry commissioned are rare and instantly transportive.
“Hampton Court has allowed documentaries, but they haven’t had any sizable drama productions for at least 30 years,” says Pearson. “They trusted us because of our reputation from last season.”
Ironically, Lewis never shot in the grand location that became Henry’s power flex and favorite residence. “That’s one of the tricks of filming,” he says. “My Hampton Court interiors were filmed elsewhere.”
“Wolf Hall” is a tapestry of historic and architectural eye candy that often represents other locations — due to shooting schedules or history. The moated Great Chalfield Manor stands in for Austin Friars, the London Augustinian friary that served as Cromwell’s home. Austin Friars burned in 1862 and was bombed during World War II. “They lived by candlelight and fires,” says Pearson. “Fires happened.”
Montacute House represents the time-destroyed Greenwich Palace. Forde Abbey was used for many Hampton Court interior scenes. A scene in which Henry and Cromwell play chess by a window is starkly illuminating. But the light was problematic.
“There’s a tapestry from Henry’s time that could only have sunlight on it for limited time,” says Pearson. Special acid-free protective paper had to be restored between scenes, and the curtains closed.
To increase the realism, director Peter Kosminsky relied on natural light from windows, from discreetly protected candles or gas-controlled fires in ancient stone fireplaces. In some historic locations, fires were not allowed, requiring computer-generated graphics to create flames. Lewis was well suited for the cold playing Henry, who had lost his youthful athletic frame. Due to factors such as a 1536 jousting accident, His Majesty (Henry was the first monarch to insist on the title) put on a few pounds.
“I was expanding daily into this sort of bloated king, so I had to wear this great foam fat suit for the whole run, which was all the insulation needed to keep me warm,” says Lewis. “The amount of wood it must have taken daily to heat these Tudor stone halls must have been amazing.”
While his palaces and personality awed, Henry bows to Father Time in Season 2. “The Mirror and the Light” plays out the historical narrative that Henry was initially spurned by Anne of Cleves, who was shocked when he surprised her for their first meeting. The aging monarch was much older and less handsome than Anne of Cleves had expected.
“That was the tragedy of Henry. He really did become the Tudor Elvis. He went from one king to the other,” says Lewis. “He was not the attractive young man he used to be.”
“The Mirror and the Light” gives a nuanced look at the power and paranoia that made Henry so notorious. “He’s surrounded by stronger countries and threatened by all these noble families with a real right to the throne. He feels like there are assassins everywhere,” says Lewis. “He copes with it in his inimitable style, which is sometimes just to chop people’s heads off.”
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