The controversy of the 'jaw-achingly stupid' decision
to cast black and ethnic-minority actors in the historical drama
Wolf Hall has been
heightened by claims from show bosses that the move was supported
by author Dame Hilary Mantel, who died in 2022. The Mirror and the
Light, the TV adaptation of the final book in Dame Hilary's Wolf Hall
trilogy, broadcasts on BBC1 on Sunday, with several black actors in
'very significant roles'. Starring alongside Mark Rylance's Thomas
Cromwell and Damian Lewis's Henry VIII, is Jane Seymour's mother,
Lady Margery, who is played by Sarah Priddy, a British-born actress
of mixed heritage, while Nan Seymour, Jane's sister-in-law, is played
by Cecilia Appiah. Maisie Richardson-Sellers, a London-born actress
of Guyanese heritage, plays Lady Bess Oughtred. Egyptian-British
actor Amir El-Masry appears as poet and politician Thomas Wyatt. Black
actors were not cast in leading roles when the critically acclaimed show
first aired in 2015.
