‘Wolf Hall’ adapted for BBC Two

Hilary Mantel’s Booker Prize-winning novel ‘Wolf Hall’ is being adapted for BBC Two.

Channel boss Janice Hadlow said the book, about Henry VIII’s adviser Thomas Cromwell, was “a great contemporary novel, a great adaptation”.

Making the announcement at the Edinburgh International Television Festival, Ms Hadlow said the channel was “very fortunate to have the rights” to the bestseller.

She also announced that ‘Young Ones’ stars Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson were returning to the channel where they made their name in the 1980s.

‘Wolf Hall’, which won the Booker in 2009, is set in the 1520s and tells the story of Cromwell’s rise to prominence in the Tudor court.

Ms Mantel spent five years writing ‘Wolf Hall’ and has since published a sequel, ‘Bring Up the Bodies’, which has also been a bestseller.

Born in Glossop, Derbyshire, she worked as a social worker before living in Botswana and Saudi Arabia, returning to Britain in the mid-1980s.