'Wolf Hall' director exposes shocking cuts in new season

Peter Kosminsky recently got candid and opened up about why theWolf Hall team cut nearly all outdoor scenes from the second season of BBC drama.

Conversing with BBC, the 68-year-old British writer, director, and producer shared that almost all the outdoor scenes in the second series were cut due to budget constraints.

Peter, who directed the first series of the award-winning show based on Hilary Mantel’s book about King Henry VIII and his wives, said the show became “conversations in rooms.”

He went on to reveal that they cut other things as well because of less funding, including “costumes, props, locations."

“We had a whole joust, an extraordinary scene as conceived by Hilary Mantel, the original novelist – and we had to cut everything,” the director of The Promise stated.

“That’s not something that has ever happened to me before, in all the years I’ve been making programmes, that you actually have to stop six weeks from production,” he added.

Notably, Peter, lead actor Sir Mark Rylance, and screenwriter Peter Straughan “took significant pay cuts” before filming to make sure the project happened.

It is pertinent to mention that the second installment of Wolf Hall, titled Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light, is premiering today, Sunday, March 23, 2025, on PBS's Masterpiece.