(light dramatic music) - Do you sleep at night, Thomas?

You bear a burden of work no other man has carried.

I know what you do, Cromwell.

- [Cromwell] I gave the king what he asked for.

- Yes.

I wonder, will he ever forgive you for it?

- We left Cromwell at the end of "Wolf Hall," right after the execution of Anne Boleyn.

Someone who he really liked actually, not just 'cause Claire Foy was playing Anne Boleyn, but because she was super intelligent and very cultured.

Right after that was a long walk to meet Henry VIII.

And then an embrace from Henry VIII from Damian Lewis, and a sense of foreboding, I suppose, that who's he gonna blame things on now?

- He's a traitor and an ingrate, and I want him dead.

We pick up with Henry the same day as the end of last series.

He was under great pressure politically because he had divorced Catherine of Aragon in order to marry Anne Boleyn.

I think probably just 'cause he really fancied her.

Henry was an interesting character.

He believed in love, he believed in romantic love, and I think he felt he could have this with Jane Seymour.

(group applauds) - At the beginning of "The Mirror and the Light," they married.

But I think she would have felt very vulnerable and her position would've been very fragile because everything rests on her providing him with the much desired son and heir.

There's a huge amount of hope, and she brings in a new chapter, but I think everything is a little fragile until she becomes pregnant.

- Lord Cromwell has behaved to my lady daughter with such tenderness and care that he could not have done more if he were my own kinsman.

- In the first series, Cromwell is the new music, if you like.

He's the rebel, the person who speaks truth to power.

But in the second series, Cromwell is the power.

He's the establishment.

And as Henry becomes increasingly frustrated with the various political vicissitudes of the time, virtually the only person he can dump his frustration on is Thomas Cromwell.

- Work his discredit now with the king, my Lord.

Destroy him.

The chance, it may not come again.

You have the first season and then this season really explodes it and you're really playing with everything that's been built up already and you're really exploring all these different avenues in a deeper way, I feel.

And that's a tremendously exciting thing to watch.

- Oh, your title is still a novelty.

In their view, you'll be dead before they have to use it.

What I hope people get from this is you look at a cult, you look at people who are living in a milieu of intrigue, of easy death, of revenge, of switching allegiances, of all this amazing power.

This is the Tudor version of watching people breathing, living and being human beings, but having the most terrible appalling consequences if it goes wrong.

(light dramatic music continues) - [Lady Mary] Lord Cromwell, you are growing very grand.

- You have put all your strength into saying no.

Now you must say yes.

- At the beginning of "The Mirror and the Light," she's in this real space of turmoil where she's faced with this extraordinary decision.

If you don't accept your father as head of the church, your mother as not legitimately queen, your claim to the throne is null and void.

So to betray, as Mary sees it, her beloved mother, her God and herself, this is the the predicament that she finds herself in.

- The first one is basically the rise of Cromwell and everything is... Well, not everything, but everything's hunky dory, everything's good.

And this is the beginning of the fall of Cromwell.

So they've got quite a different mood to them, I think.

it's just nine years later.

But there is definitely a different feel on set.

And I think that comes from the fact that it's a lot more somber.

So if you're coming in straight from not having seen the first one, go back and watch the first one.

It's a lot more happy.

And then it will prep you for the enjoyable misery that is to come.

(light dramatic music)