Wolf Hall's Mark Rylance took major pay cut to get season 2 made, director says

In written evidence submitted to the Culture, Media and Sport Committee’s inquiry into British film and high-end TV, Kosminsky said that the decision was made due to the fact that streamers declined to co-produce the second instalment with the BBC.

"I’m writing this submission to alert the Committee to the fact that, were we to try to make The Mirror and the Light today, we would not succeed," Kosminsky wrote.

"The Mirror and the Light was offered to each streamer in turn. Despite the fact that its first series had won a Golden Globe, they all turned it down. It was only possible to begin production when the producer, the writer, the director and the leading actor all gave up a significant proportion of their fees.

"We had shepherded the series through a ten-year development process but, in the end, it was necessary for us to work for very little to get the show made."

Kosminsky noted that the reticence for co-production on Wolf Hall was indicative of a wider problem with US streamers investing in British storytelling.

“The streamers are perhaps the ultimate manifestation of a free market in television," he added. "They have made some extraordinary, mould-breaking programmes – turning high-end TV drama into the medium of choice for ‘A-List’ talent, partially usurping the feature film and breaking the unhealthy, snobbish divide been theatrical and television filmmaking.

“But an unintended consequence of this explosion of creativity has been a market failure – a failure to fund the kind of drama, such as Mr Bates or Wolf Hall, that is of particular interest to a UK audience.

"Whilst these programmes will always be a minority of our output, they are also an essential part of it. And we are losing it. Blink and it will be gone – and our audiences will not thank us for it.”

Wolf Hall continued to be a success with audiences and critics in its second outing, picking up after the events of season 1 with the execution of Henry VIII's second wife, Anne Boleyn.

Read more:

• Wolf Hall's sombre ending is supposed to be anticlimactic – but still has one major flaw
• Wolf Hall's Mark Gatiss says not being able to return for season 2 was "a killer"

Wolf Hall is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.

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