(contemplative music) - One of the central characters in the drama is actually England and England's country houses and the palaces of England.
The fact that we were able to shoot on the real locations had a profound effect on the actors and their performances and the sense of reality.
The sense that when you looked at a stone wall it was a real stone wall.
It wasn't a carved piece of cardboard painted to look like a stone.
And so when the actors actually went onto the set, they had the sense that they were in the real places.
- Because the locations are so remarkable and rare once we were in a location like Penshurst Palace, which is a very, very old place where Henry and Anne actually walked and lived, we would then film all the scenes that were in there from whatever, like any film does.
Lady Anne.
- Speaking French And it's been amazing to be in England, in the countryside, in the summer and be in all these beautiful houses, like incredible locations that have all felt exactly right and be in beautiful costumes with amazing actors.
- [Colin] What's remarkable is that there were scenes that were actually played in rooms where the real Thomas Cromwell and Anne Boleyn actually were.
And I think for them as actors that had effect on their performance and their sense of being there and actually really reliving moments as they happened.
- I suppose we must expect the country to mourn for her.
She was once given the title of queen.
- Mistakenly.
- So the actors are standing in a building that existed 500 years ago, lit by candlelight, exclusively, just as that building was designed to be lit at night and they're wearing costumes that look and are put together and designed exactly in the way that the costumes of that period were.
And when you put all these things together it becomes more like real life.
I've been doing this for 35 years.
I've never had an experience like that.
It was magical.
- I was so glad that we filmed in England because we were able to visit places that had such history.
In fact if the acting work dries up for me I will create a Thomas Cromwell summer tour of the locations of Wolf Hall and I'll enjoy myself.
