Wolf Hall: behind the scenes of the BBC's Hilary Mantel adaptation with Damian Lewis and Mark Rylance

The BBC's star-studded new tale of Tudor intrigue, Wolf Hall, is set to be one of the television events of the year. Ahead of the series, Gaby Wood joined the cast on set

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 In Mantel’s Booker Prize-winning twist of history’s kaleidoscope, Henry VIII is peripheral – a clever shift of perspective that gives the usual hero a supporting role. It is something Damian Lewis relished. ‘He really is a more expressionistic figure,’ Lewis says. ‘We see him being tender at times, we see him being caring. We see him being self-pitying, irrational, downright piggish, misogynistic, prejudiced. We see him being creative, artistic at times. So it’s been quite fun having that range.’

This younger Henry doesn’t have the girth of his later self. ‘The last 10 years of his life he just ballooned,’ Lewis says. ‘He was like Elvis – if he’d died on the loo it would have been perfect.’ Still, Lewis does change shape over the course of the series. ‘Today I’m a svelte 32in,’ he says with a smile. ‘But because my face shape is entirely wrong, we weren’t able to go incredibly fat, so we’ve done it by degrees. We’ve pushed him out to about 40, 42in.’

Lewis compares playing Henry VIII to being a substitute on a football team – in particular, he compares him to ‘Supersub’ David Fairclough, who played for Liverpool in the 1970s and 1980s. ‘He was a redhead,’ he says, identifying closely with the footballer. ‘He rarely started a game for Liverpool – he was always a substitute, and he had a knack for coming on and scoring a winner. And I feel that in this version, it’s a bit like what Henry VIII is. He comes on occasionally, dazzles, and goes away again.’

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