Shardlake series


The Shardlake series is a series of historical mystery novels by C. J. Sansom, set in the reign of Henry VIII in the 16th century.
Sansom has said that he plans to write further Shardlake novels taking the lawyer into the reign of Elizabeth I.

Description

The series' protagonist is the hunchbacked lawyer Matthew Shardlake, who is assisted in his adventures by Mark Poer and then Jack Barak. Shardlake works on commission initially from Thomas Cromwell in Dissolution and Dark Fire, Archbishop Thomas Cranmer in Sovereign and Revelation, and Queen Catherine Parr in Heartstone and Lamentation. The seventh book, Tombland, was published in October 2018.

Novels

Adaptations

Radio

has adapted novels in the Shardlake series as part of its 15-Minute Drama series. In 2012, Dissolution was adapted into a 10-part radio serial by Colin MacDonald, starring Jason Watkins as Shardlake and Mark Bonnar as Cromwell. BBC Radio 4 later broadcast Dark Fire in 2014, with Justin Salinger taking over the role of Shardlake and Bryan Dick playing Barak, Sovereign in 2015, Revelation in 2017, and Heartstone in 2018, all adapted by Colin MacDonald as 10-part serials.

Television

In 2007, the BBC commissioned an adaptation of Dissolution, with Kenneth Branagh set to star as Shardlake. Branagh chose instead to star as the eponymous protagonist in the BBC series Wallander.