In the long-awaited second season, Mark Rylance returns as Thomas Cromwell, a shrewd political servant to Damian Lewis' Henry VIII who's striving to facilitate enough change to please his king - and save himself.

It’s been nearly 10 years since Peter Kosminsky first brought Hilary Mantel’s novels to the TV screen with “Wolf Hall.” The director and executive producer returns with Masterpiece’s “Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light” at 8 p.

The period piece, starring Mark Rylance as 16th-century royal fixer Thomas Cromwell, faced steep funding challenges amid ballooning production costs in the U.K.