Films and Fiction

One of Disney Plus’s best recent releases is far removed from its usual Marvel and Star Wars content, with the four-part miniseries Shardlake taking viewers back to the 16th century.

The show follows Matthew Shardlake, a lawyer who is engaged by Thomas Cromwell to investigate a murder at a monastery, while also trying to bring about the monastery’s closure as part of the Reformation taking place at the time.

It’s a typical historical mystery, where the detective has to rely far more on his wits, with very little in the way of forensics or crime scene investigation to help him out. Justice is a much more precarious affair, and is mixed in with a large dose of politics to further muddy the waters.

It’s similar to the 1990s British TV series Cadfael, starring Derek Jacobi as the mystery solving monk, though that series seemed more in touch with the Medieval England it was set in. It’s a similar situation to Sharpe vs the Aubrey-Maturin novels. In Patrick O’Brian’s work, the world of the Napoleonic Wars is in every sentence, every action and line of dialogue, while Bernard Cornwell takes the path of telling a story that just happens to be set in the 19th century. Both styles have their merits, but I would be interested to know which side C.J. Samson’s novels fall on as I’ve never read them and can only judge it by the adaptation.

Arthur Hughes delivers a good performance as the slightly melancholic Matthew Shardlake, and is well balanced against the more impetuous Jack Barak played by Anthony Boyle. They are enjoyable to watch as their different characters clash, and it will be interesting to see them develop if Disney Plus decides to produce more series.

One big problem is in how the dialogue is spoken by a lot of the actors. People like Derek Jacobi have the classical training that lets them say archaic lines in a believable way, but even in the ’90s you could see how younger actors struggled to make it appear natural, and that’s only increased in the decades since. It’s not something that can be blamed on the show or its creators, but it is interesting to see the change develop over the years.

In terms of the mystery aspect, it does revolve more around Shardlake’s own intelligence rather than the small clues of trailed in mud or a certain kind of plant that leads to a discovery. It builds up the tension as the body count rises, with no clear answer revealed until the end, and is all wrapped in the bias of politics, with the suggestion that the ‘truth’ is whatever Lord Cromwell wants it to be.

It’s interesting to see the story unfold over such a short series, but it works well, and doesn’t feel either too rushed or too drawn out, keeping you guessing until the end. There’s definitely a lot more that can be explored with both the characters and setting, and hopefully Disney Plus will take the opportunity to expand on this particular property with more series.

A smart, gritty 16th century mystery that mixes crime and politics in equal measure. The relationship between Shardlake and Barak is an interesting one and is the main force behind the show. 7/10