Shardlake Cast Talks Adapting Books, Period Pieces, and Unconfirmed Endings
Set in 16th century Tudor England, Matthew Shardlake (Arthur Hughes) attempts to solve crimes all while avoiding getting caught up in the political implications of his work under Henry VIII. This mini series is based on the best-selling books by C. J. Sansom. Pop Culture Planet’s Jordan Bohan talked with the cast of Shardlake about adapting the books, what it’s like working on a period piece, and spills secrets on what’s next for the characters.
Adapting a book comes with its own challenges, but also gives the actors far more source material to pull from when it comes to bringing these characters to life. “I read every book before starting. Dissolution, the first one, was my favorite,” Anthony Boyle shared. “I was really studious and really read every little nook and cranny.”
“I found it really useful for Matthew because it's all told from his perspective. Obviously it was massively useful for for me because the whole book is his opinion on everything,” shared Arthur Hughes. “He can be quite a grumpy stubborn loner but with his kind of warm feelings and good heart I did find them very useful.”
Between Masters of the Air and Manhunt, and now Shardlake, Boyle’s projects tend to skew on the historical side, begging fans to wonder if this is a conscious choice. “I just love history. I think it's just the way the cards have fallen really. For whatever reason I think I just look like I’ve got the opposite of YouTube face. A sort of period drama face,” he joked. “Maybe one day I'll play someone that has Uber Eats but today is not that day.”
Working on a period piece such as Shardlake gave the actors the opportunity to fall into characters that are far less common in current productions. From incredible sets to period costumes to dramatic speech, there is so much fun to be have on a production like this. “The horses! I love the horses and I think the set locations are just unreal,” Hughes said, with Boyle adding: “I think people in America are really going to like it for that reason. I grew up in Ireland. There's castles everywhere. When you go to America you don't see that and there's so much to see. We filmed in real castles on these real locations. It's so awe inspiring, so phenomenal that I think people are really going to dig it in America.”
Horse riding can be a lot harder than it looks, and even harder to portray comfort while doing it. Boyle served a bit as a teacher to Hughes during their time filming. “I had to learn for Manhunt and just loved it. I had done a sort of cowboy camp where I hung out with these cowboys for about four weeks and rode horses so I was giving Arthur a lot of tips and a lot of pointers,” Boyle shared. “I was Arthur's horse master.”
“I hadn't ridden before,” added Hughes. “It was quite new for me but I loved it. It was so much fun and you know they there's quite a lot of horse travel back and forth for these guys. It's beautiful thing.”
Ruby Serkis’ character Alice has a bit of an elusive and unexplained ending. When asked about where she hopes her character ends up, Serkis shares had a heartwarming thought. “I like to think that she got away to France and she started a really sweet new life in the baguette shop with a little cat and a new boyfriend,” she said. “In my head that's what she does and she goes and gets a chance to start completely fresh and leave all of that behind and have a new crack at life.”
