Power in the darkness

Wolf Hall is back. As the extraordinary epic about King Henry VIII and his vengeful entourage edges to a climax, Timothy Spall reveals what it was like to play Cromwell's nemesis

- Xan Brooks

It is a treacherous landscape, the set of Wolf Hall, which sits under grey clouds beside Wells Cathedral. Outside in the field, production vans spin their wheels and horses kick up mud. Inside, the Bishop's Palace is mined with cables, scaffold and lighting rigs. Visitors are advised to tread carefully. Danger lurks at every turn. "You watch yourself there," cautions Timothy Spall. "You won't lose your head, but you might lose your balance."

For three months, Wolf Hall's cast and crew have shuttled between England's heritage sites: Hampton Court and Haddon Hall, Lacock Abbey and Montacute House. Now they're in the final straight. Cooling his heels in his trailer with a flask of tea, Spall explains he has only one scene left to film - opposite lead player Mark Rylance inside the columned hall.

If there still exists such a thing as prestige television in this age of uncurated, on-demand content, Wolf Hall fits the bill. The BBC's gilded Tudor drama is at once opulent and restrained, savage and soft-spoken; a gangster thriller in ermine and velvet. The original 2015 series covered the first two novels in Hilary Mantel's Booker prize-winning trilogy (Wolf Hall; Bring Up the Bodies), shadowing low-born, high-flying Thomas Cromwell through the court of Henry VIII. The upcoming six-parter tackles the third, The Mirror and the Light, in which Cromwell finds himself friendless and under threat.