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ENGLAND 1536, and the forecast is for a darkish and stormy evening with a blizzard of introductory captions. King Henry VIII has damaged with the Roman Catholic Church; monasteries are resisting reform; crows caw and swoop as a messenger on a horse thunders by the gloom. By ‘eck it’s grim on the market in STV’s new historic drama Shardlake.
I say “new” historic drama however admirers of CJ Sansom’s novels will know this era homicide thriller has been this fashion earlier than. It first aired on Disney+ in 2024, however after 4 episodes the present wasn’t renewed; it may be grim on the market in streaming land, too.
Welcome again, then, to a world of mud, candlelight, intrigue, faith, politics and Sean Bean. We’ll get to the mighty Bean in a mo, however first, to the titular younger Matthew Shardlake, right here incomes his crust as a Tudor lawyer/detective. Shardlake is disabled, which places him at an obstacle in a society that sees distinction as a curse.
We all know what Shardlake thinks of that, and far else, as a result of he has a helpful behavior of speaking out loud to himself. “Prepared Matthew, prepared for what at the present time would possibly carry?” he asks his reflection within the window.
The day has introduced a summons from Thomas Cromwell (Sean Bean). A commissioner has been murdered in a distant monastery and Cromwell desires Shardlake to have a gander. Since each Sherlock will need to have his Watson, Cromwell sends younger buck John Barak (Anthony Boyle) to accompany Shardlake, a lot to our hero’s annoyance.
Mark Rylance somewhat made Cromwell his personal in Wolf Corridor, so all energy to Bean’s elbow for taking over the gig. His Cromwell is extra swaggering than quietly sinister. As for accent, Bean goes for a form of posh Yorkshire in comparison with Rylance’s gentle, indeterminate burr. Both manner, these aren’t males to be messed with.
The monastery lot are lower than delighted to see the pair, with one brother (Paul Kaye) going as far as to name Cromwell the Antichrist, which somewhat places a kink in dinner. However Shardlake has his orders and is set to stay round and resolve the case.
What his detractors don’t realise is the ability Shardlake derives from his incapacity. “It’s I and I embrace it,” he says in one other one-to-one with himself. “It’s my disguise.” It additionally provides him empathy with society’s weak and weak, which on this case means girls and a younger lad being bullied mercilessly by a senior monk.
The attitudes towards incapacity, the makes an attempt at witty asides, the empathy, makes Shardlake a contemporary affair, presumably to widen its enchantment. However the extra speak, much less motion method additionally makes the hour appear as gradual as per week within the Tower.
Shardlake additionally desires to have its interval cake and eat it, which suggests numerous gloomy scenes the place you may barely make out what’s going on.
There may be at all times Sean Bean, nevertheless, even when the glimpses of him up to now have been few and much between, and when he’s on display screen you half anticipate him to start out banging on a few sure model of tea. You don’t get that with Mark Rylance.
