![]() Concentrated, vigilant, withdrawn, he barely gestures, and then suddenly swoops, occasionally into near violence even when hovering on the outskirts of the action he seems to focus it. At his first entrance, he is chewing as he speaks as his authority consolidates, his accent subtly poshes itself up. Yet he suggests elements of the background at which the courtiers sneer. ![]() He is not, as he is in the novels, seen as a bashed-up child, the son of a Putney blacksmith. Here is a vindication of the rights of the self-made man.īen Miles's performance as Cromwell is crucial and it is magnificent. His clear-sightedness, dexterity and exceptional accomplishments are deemed as worthy of celebration as spiritual acrobatics or aristocratic gracefulness. He is seen without sentimentality as an effective, which is also to say ruthless, reformer. For Mantel, and Poulton, Cromwell is the pivot of action that will help bring about a new England. For Bolt, Thomas More, refusing to accede to the king's break with the Catholic church, was the conscience-struck hero and Thomas Cromwell a power-hungry skulker. This has a particular force in the theatre, where Robert Bolt's A Man for All Seasons long held sway. ![]() They also rearrange the pantheon of heroes and villains. ![]()
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