Tara Ward: Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light, Smoke, Here We Go

Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light 

Thomas Cromwell navigates the Tudor court in the aftermath of the execution of Henry VIII's second wife, Anne Boleyn. Based on the final book in Hilary Mantel's commanding trilogy (Neon). 

 

Smoke 

When an arson investigator begrudgingly teams up with a police detective, their race to stop two arsonists ignites a twisted game of secrets and suspicions (Apple TV+). 

 

Here We Go 

In this hilariously unfiltered portrait of family life, the Jessops are the subject of their son Sam's amateur documentary, as they go about their mundane but chaotic lives (TVNZ+).   

 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Teams podcast
from News Talks AB.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
It's screen time Time. Tara Ward is our screen time expert.
Of course, it's this time every Saturday morning that she
brings us three recommendations for shows to watch your stream
at home. Gald to Tara, good morning. Okay, let's kick
off with a show streaming on neon, the keenly anticipated

(00:33):
wolf Hall.

Speaker 3 (00:35):
Yeah, wolf Fall is back. It's been ten years since
the first season of this award winning British drama was
on our screens and I'm so glad that it's back.
This is the BBC historical drama based on the series
of three books by Hillary Mantel about the reign of
King Henry the Eighth. And this is the final installment
of the series and it tells the story of Thomas Cromwell,

(00:55):
who's played by Mark Rylands. Thomas Cromwell was a blacksmith's
son from Putney who rose through the royal court to
become a close advisor of Henry the Eighth. And old
comes power, but there's also a lot of risk and
the threat of being beheaded is never far away, and
so wolf Hall is about that political dance that the

(01:16):
gameplay and the strategy and the plotting to keep the
King happy. It's almost a psychological thriller because every step,
every conversation is so fraught with danger and suspicious and intrigue.
And there's a couple of reasons why I recommend this show.
The first is that it's just such a beautiful show
to watch. Everything is rich and heavy with atmosphere. It's

(01:38):
deliciously slow. Nobody says one word more than they have to.
The other thing is that that you don't need to
know a lot about this period of hastory to enjoy
this and follow along They Pepper and little clues and
the dialogue along the way to remind you of how
everybody is connected and what a cast as well. Damien
Lewis plays the King, Timothy Spaul, Harriet Walter, Jonathan Price.

(02:01):
This is just Prestige TV. It's so good and if
you miss the first season that's available on the on
its well.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
Ah, superb. I reckon Timothy Spall might be my favorite
British actor.

Speaker 3 (02:11):
Do you think he's so good? It's so versatile, you know,
I take yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:14):
I think it might be the boomingham accent as well.
You just don't hear that, you know, I think that,
like you know, back to our vitas in ped did
you watch the Day? Yeah, I'm turning back the hands
of time a little bit this morning, Tara. But I
suppose so as wolf Hall in a different way. You're
very good, so wolf Hall. Both series in our streaming
on Neon on Apple TV plus tell Us about Smoke,

(02:35):
Yes Mike is.

Speaker 3 (02:36):
A new crime drama. It's based on a true story
that inspired a podcast called Firebug, and it starts Taron Egerton,
who plays a former firefighter who now works as an
ars and investigator. So he's had a few traumatic experiences
at work that made him change to we are directions
and he's investigating two serial Arsinus and when his investigations

(02:58):
sort of don't make any progress, he gets teamed up
with a local detective to to try and solve the crimes.
And it becomes this hat and mouse aim of trying
to predict where the Arsinus will strike next and trying
to guess their next move. And watching this reminded me
of how nice it was to have a crime thriller
that wasn't all about murder and death. This is more

(03:20):
of a psychological aspect to it. You know, they're trying
to sit into the mind of a serial Artinus and
workout where they're going to go next. They can't sort
of trust anyone around them, you know, is it someone
one of their colleagues. So this is something a little
bit different. It does jump around a bit in the
first episode, but you know it's intriguing. A great cast.
It's dark and gritty and lots of twists and turns

(03:42):
all the way through. You know, it's not perfect, but
there's more than enough going on here to pull you
in and keep you hooked and keep you watching.

Speaker 2 (03:49):
Oh superb Okay, cool, Let's smoke. That's on Apple TV
Plus and on tvn Z plus. Here we Go And
this is.

Speaker 3 (03:56):
A British sitcom that's just landed on TV and Z
plus two seasons of it and a third one is
on the way. And it's one of those British comedies.
I don't want to say it's old fashion, but it's
more of a sort of traditional kind of comedy. It's
not trying to do anything edgy or clever. It's quite
a comfortable kind of watch and it's not really about
anything much either. It stars Katherine Parkinson and Alison Stedman.

(04:19):
And it's about the lives of the Jest family, who
are a sort of a very ordinary middle class the
Bourbon family. Their teenage son is recording their daily lives
for a school project. He's making a documentary and he
just records what happens. And it's about the chaos and
the silliness of the family's daily lives and all their
extended family and friends. The humor is in the normality

(04:41):
of it all, with you know, a touch of the
absurd and the ridiculous and the infuriating. It's a very mild,
a little bit of an old school kind of sitcom
and a very easy watch.

Speaker 2 (04:52):
Okay, cool, I like the sound of that. Sometimes there's
something a bit, you know, some of the most relaxing
shows are the ones that aren't overly complicated, you know exactly.
We love it, so that could be a bit of me. Yeah,
that's here we go. That's on TVNZ plus. The other
shows Smoke is Apple TV Plus and wolf Hall. Both
series are streaming on Neon. All the details, of course,

(05:13):
will be on the website, but you knew that.

Speaker 1 (05:15):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen live
to News Talks ed B from nine am Saturday, or
follow the podcast on iHeartRadio