Shardlake star Sean Bean on his 'dark and creepy' Thomas Cromwell

While Shardlake himself is played by Arthur Hughes, Cromwell is played by Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings star Sean Bean, who spoke exclusively with RadioTimes.com about what drew him to the role.

He said: "I think it was his mischievousness and his ruthlessness. And also his charm and the pleasure he took is these belongings that been stolen from the church, the relics and the skull of Saint Barbara and the way he handled them – there was something quite creepy about that.

"And I like the fact he was quite a dark character, apparently was quite a humorous man when he wasn't at work. I found him quite creepy, quite scary, which apparently he was, so that was something that was very nice to play, very rewarding to play, that aspect of his character."

Bean also explained how he came to play Cromwell in the series, saying: "I was sent the scripts, and it's something I immediately wanted to be involved with.

"I'd read the book some time ago, I was in Norway at the time stuck, stuck up in some mountain in snow and I read about three books.

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"And then it came along and I thought, ‘Oh I remember these’. I really enjoyed the books and I'm really kind of interested in that period of time and the ramifications of what happened there, so I jumped at the chance to play Cromwell."

At its heart, the series is a genre mash-up between a historical drama and a murder mystery thriller, and speaking at a recent Q&A, Hughes was quick to praise the show's "twisty" mystery element.

Asked whether he was able to guess the murderer himself, Hughes said: "I think, reading it, I didn't. Because there's so many dead ends, red herrings, and there's just there's a lot of information.

"There's really so many layers to the story – it's quite twisty."

Shardlake premieres on Disney Plus on Wednesday 1st May. You can sign up to Disney Plus for £7.99 a month or £79.90 a year now.

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