CLOAK & DAGGER

A dogged lawyer investigates murder at a monastery in a gripping Tudor mystery

- IAN MACEWAN

NEW DRAMA
Shardlake
From Wednesday 1 May, Disney+

We think of monastic life as being spartan, but in the grand, candlelit refectory of the imposing St Donatus monastery, the tables are groaning with plates piled high with mouthwatering food and goblets of fine wine…

We’re on location for new Disney+ series Shardlake, a four-part murder mystery set in the reign of King Henry VIII and based on the first of C.J. Sansom’s acclaimed novels (see panel, below right).

Filming is taking place in Budapest, where the production team has re-created Tudor England during the Reformation, a bloody and turbulent time when Henry separated the Church of England from the Vatican, dissolving convents and monasteries and seizing their wealth for the Crown.

The story follows London lawyer Matthew Shardlake (Arthur Hughes), who is dispatched by the King’s chief adviser Thomas Cromwell (Sean Bean) to investigate the murder of a royal official at a monastery.

However, Shardlake – who is self-conscious about how scoliosis has affected his physical appearance and who is called cruel names such as ‘crookback’ because of it – does not receive the warmest of welcomes from taciturn Abbot Fabian (Babou Ceesay) and his unforthcoming monks.