The World of Wolf Hall

(dramatic music) - Wolf Hall was shot entirely on location.

There was not a single set built.

We wanted to put the audience in the world, feeling as though they were actually there with the characters.

- I swear to be a true and faithful counselor to the king's majesty.

- Hilary Mantel spent five years researching the material before she put pen to paper.

And we've tried to honor that approach.

We hired a team of researchers, in costume, in look, in lighting.

- During the day, for example, the only real source of light would've been light coming through the windows.

At night, the only source of light would've been candles.

And so with the ability to use new digital cameras, we were able to actually film in these locations without the usual intrusion of an enormous film crew.

- I like very much the scene when Henry VIII has had a bad dream.

It was all in candlelight, in a beautiful room upstairs at Montacute House.

It just felt like we were there.

- We love to be where these stories happened.

And to me, the settings, the landscapes, the gardens are almost like another character.

- The actors were there, walking in some cases in the very places where our characters would've walked, and we were able to create the sense of actually, we were really back there, 500 years before.

- This is shot like a contemporary political thriller.

The camera's very present, always in the room with you.

- I shot it in exactly the same way that I would've shot one of my contemporary dramas, with handheld cameras.

Trying to make it feel just as realistic as possible.

- The camera is with Cromwell at all times.

So as he creeps into a room, the camera will creep into a room with him.

So it's his version of events, his view of what's happening.

- I think the location that stays most strongly in my mind was Penshurst Palace.

There's a gallery where we know Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn walked.

And to have our actors play out scenes in that room was an experience I will never forget.

- We were able to visit places that had such history.

I rode through the gates of Berkeley Castle.

To ride the horse through those gates that Bolingbroke rode through, that was a great joy.

- I think viewers will see a light shone on the Tudor court in a different way.

- Some people will come to this story thinking, "Well, actually we know this."

- -and I think we'll surprise them.

(dramatic music)