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There's no new episode of Masterpiece Studio this week, but with the premiere of Wolf Hall,

The Mirror and the Light, one week away, we thought we'd revisit our

Wolf Hall recap episode. This episode outlines major plot points, historical details, and

character arcs. So if you're not caught up on Wolf Hall yet, all six episodes are available

to watch on PBS Passport. We hope you enjoy it.

I'm J. Slay Cobbb and you're listening to Masterpiece Studio. If you walk through the Great Hall of Hampton Court Palace, the site of King Henry

the 8th's court, a canny observer might notice the intertwined initials H and A for Henry

and the bewitching Anne Boleyn, Henry's second

wife. The interlacing of those initials speaks to the love and devotion between the two, and

acts as a bittersweet reminder that grand buildings and palaces all too often survive far longer

than romance. Centries later, historians and viewers alike are still captivated by the

story of Henry VIII and his six wives, one overflowing with romance, betrayal, heresy, and

executions, proving quite emphatically that truth is often far stranger than fiction.

Henry's legacy has endured these past several centuries,

helped by copious books, television shows, films, plays, and works of art

that depict the voracious and murderous king as he stops at nothing to ensure himself a male heir.

Or perhaps it's that Herman's Hermit song, I'm Henry the Eighth I am, that has

cemented his place in pop culture. Or the prevalence of that morbid nursery rhyme about his six

wives. Divorced, beheaded, died. Divorced, beheaded, survived.

Wolf Hall is director Peter Cosminsky's 2015 adaptation of the late author Hillary Mantell's 2009 and 2012 renowned Booker Prize-winning historical novels, Wolf Hall, and Bring Up the Bodies,

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