Well it has
hit the UK TV news like a bullet this one. Anyone who is anyone is talking
about it; not least because its first episode alone became BBC2s most watched
drama in a decade, opening with 3.9 million viewers and 16.5 % audience share
for its time slot (this according to The Telegraph). I would say its popularity is definitely the cause of the
talk and not the consequence – if you see what I mean – because, well, as we
all know, audience numbers are dropping both for cinema and for mainstream
television. Any record is worth talking about and analyzing – mainly, I would
suspect, in the hope of figuring out the cause of this and hoping to repeat it.
It is a shame, really that in my opinion the analysis ends up at something we should
have figured out a while ago. If you put good quality content on a television,
guess what, people watch it! But I am getting ahead of myself. Let’s talk about
Wolf Hall first…
Wolf Hall
revisits one of the most popular topics of British Historical drama; the life,
times and wives of Henry the Eighth. We do not, however take the usual point of
view of the king himself, but see it from the perspective of the other political
force majeure of the era, Thomas Cromwell. Through his eyes we see the machinations
of the court and what exactly it takes to rise politically in those times (or
indeed, some might argue, at any time, but again I get ahead of myself).
Although it is a popular topic, I would have
thought it is no small gamble actually going ahead and making a drama series
about it AGAIN. There is so much good material to compare it to. So little has
been left unsaid. You would have to be really confident to be able to pull off
an entire series on the matter. Then there is the fact that the series is based
on a very well loved book by Hilary Mantel. I mean, it is a truly wonderful
exercise in creativity – making a series based on a well-loved book on a
well-trodden topic , creating something completely original and artistic AND popular.
Wow. Now that’s an ask.
And yet,
BBCs Wolf Hall pulls it off! First of all there is the matter of the acting,
which you would have to be an outright heartless wretch to fault. Acting phenomenon
Mark Rylance plays the lead, Thomas Cromwell and is supported by such great
names of British acting as Jonathan price, Damien Lewis and Claire Foy.
Historical dramas have always been the BBCs strong suit – and they must know as
well as we do that having a strong cast is well and good (in fact it is very
good indeed) but one must have a structure to support this cast – or a
structure for the cast to support. Wolf Hall is a thoughtful film, incorporating
candle light as a sole light source in some scenes -much to the exclamations of the media - and
taking the usual care in the décor and costumes. But beyond that, its story is
told in a very real way. There are silences, a lot of silences. Some of them
are contemplative, some of them are tense, they have been mocked a fair amount
for their number but in fact none are out of place. Cromwell is a very, very
real character, shown with faults, warts and realism. When his wife and two
daughters die of sweating sickness (come now, this was NOT a spoiler, it is all
over any outlet I can possibly imagine) Cromwell is not shown in the throes of
overly dramatic tears. His grief is, for lack of a better word, quiet and grey,
and comes out a lot in his determination to save Cardinal Wolsey and completely
bury himself in the attempts to do so. The king is also a very real, believable
character with more weakness than history – or an average historical drama -
would care to admit. I think this alone is one of the main things that makes
this series so popular. Yes we are watching grand costumes and kings and princes…
But we are watching REALISTIC, believable and relatable kings and princes. They
are human as well as story book, if you see what I mean. And it is SO easy to
glorify a king like Henry the Eighth (and I mean lets be candid he himself
encouraged it at every turn back in his day) but in an almost saturated market,
almost perversely, making him human and believable makes him original.
And then of
course there is the whole intrigue side of it. It isn’t exactly front page news that human
beings love to watch machinations unfold and reputations rise and fall. Especially
if it’s a humble blacksmiths son like Cromwell rising to power and entering the
annals of history. It is what drives any series with the remotest political
element to it. Which brings me to a point that is driving me up the bleeding
walls. Why, oh why, oh WHY has the world
and its dog taken to calling the series Game Of Thrones with no zombies or
dragons. I mean honestly, was it news to ANYONE that Game of Thrones was
basically a political drama!! A cursory web search of the series and its writer
would clearly reveal that George M. Martin never hid that he was heavily inspired
by British History in the first place! Game of Thrones has always been a political
drama with dragons, but this does NOT mean the presence of dragons is now a
criteria when political dramas have been around since cameras began and was by
no means a genre discovered by GOT. I mean don’t get me wrong, I am a HUGE fan of GOT, I think it is at best
waaay to early to make it a yardstick for all political dramas of all times.
Ok, rant
over. I will go and have a glass of water and calm down. In the meanwhile you
go and catch up on Wolf Hall. Its available on BBC Iplayer if you live in the UK, and despite the
distinct lack of dragons, it’s a darn fine series…
Kayıtlar
Hiç yorum yok:
Yorum Gönder