By Nate Bloom
Contributing Columnist
Here’s one to catch up with: “Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light” is based on the third (and final) novel in an acclaimed book series about King Henry VIII (1491-1547) and Thomas Crowell — Crowell was long the king’s right-hand man.
It premiered on PBS on Sunday, March 23, and new episodes premiere on following Sundays through April 27. You can catch reruns on the PBS app, free for about a month after first airing.
The two first novels were dramatized by the BBC in one 2015 “Wolf Hall” series. The 2015 series was critically acclaimed and it got big audiences when it aired on PBS. Damian Lewis played Henry and Mark Rylance plays Cromwell. They reprise these roles in the 2025 series.
The 2015 and the 2025 series were directed by PETER KOSMINSKY, 68, a top British TV program director. LILIT LESSER, 16ish, plays Princess Mary, Henry’s devout Catholic daughter. Henry broke with the Catholic Church so he could divorce his first wife, Mary’s mother.
Lilit Lesser is the daughter of ANTON LESSER, 73. He’s a British Jewish actor who is best known in America for playing Qyburn, the evil, mad scientist in “Game of Thrones.” I don’t know if Lilit’s mother is Jewish.
“Death of a Unicorn” opens in movie theaters on March 28. Premise: Eliot (PAUL RUDD, 55) works for Leopold, a pharmaceutical titan (Richard Grant). Eliot and his teen daughter accidentally run into a unicorn (!) near Leopold’s rural home. Not long after, Leopold’s stooges find the carcass of the unicorn and discover that its flesh, blood and horn have magical curative properties and they plan to make big money from the carcass. But there’s a magical revenge on the Leopolds! (No more spoilers!)
The national college basketball tournament began on March 16. For most of this season, according to the AP poll, Auburn was rated as the #1 team and Duke was #2. Last week, I noted that the coaches of Auburn (BRUCE PEARL, 65) and Duke (JON SCHEYER, 37) were Jewish and I profiled Pearl. Well, Auburn lost two late-season games and were demoted to the #4 spot on March 17, and Duke became the #1 pick. But, by the time you read this, it’s possible (but unlikely) that Duke and/or Auburn have been eliminated.
Scheyer grew up in Northbrook, Illinois, a heavily Jewish Chicago suburb. He was raised in his father’s Jewish faith and he had a bar mitzvah. He was the star of his high school basketball team and he led them to a shocking state championship (2005). Most of players on his team were Jewish. He went to Duke and was a basketball star there, too. However, he was not drafted by the NBA. He played one year (2011-12) for Maccabi Tel Aviv, a pro team. He became Duke’s head coach in 2022.
“Audrey’s Children” opens in theaters on March 28. It covers a critical time (1969-74) in the career of Dr. Audrey Evans (1924-2022). Evans was born and raised in England and she was the only woman in her medical school class (1953). She got a fellowship in 1953 to study and practice, for two years, at the Boston Children’s Hospital. She was trained, in Boston, by Dr. SIDNEY FARBER (1903-73). He’s known as the father of modern chemotherapy. The famous Dana-Farber Cancer Institute is named after him.
Evans settled in America after learning that women were not allowed, then, to specialize in pediatrics in the U.K. As the film begins (1969), she was just recruited to be the first female Chief of Pediatric Oncology at Philadelphia Children’s Hospital.
The film follows how she developed a treatment that, eventually, increased survival rates for neuroblastoma from 10% to 90%. Before her treatment, it was the third most fatal type of cancer in babies and toddlers. It always was rare in anyone over age 5.
In the early 70s, Evans was critical to the creation of the first Ronald McDonald House for parents of hospitalized children. It’s a complicated story that is told in the film.
Natalie Dormer, 43, a British actress, plays Evans. Her many lead role characters include playing Margaery Tyrell in “Game of Thrones.”
The film was written by JULIA FISHER FARBMAN, 35. She grew up in the Philadelphia area and her father is a physician, specializing in radiation oncology. She got to know Dr. Evans when she made (2019) a series of short films about her (and other women), entitled “Modern Hero” (free on XUMO app).
“Audrey’s Children” was directed by AMI CANAAN MANN, 56. This film is her first big film. She is the daughter of famous director MICHAEL MANN, 82 (“Heat,” “Ferrari”).
