BBC Two announced the commission of Wolf Hall on 23 August 2012, with The Guardian reporting that £7 million was spent on the adaptation of Hilary Mantel's novels.

Director Peter Kosminsky said that when he first read Peter Straughan's script, only a first draft, he couldn't believe how well it distilled 1,000 pages of the novels into six hours of television.

The drama features 102 characters, and Kosminsky began casting the supporting parts in October 2013.

Although originally planned to be filmed in Belgium, the series ended up shooting on location at 28 real British medieval and Tudor sites, mostly in the south-west of England, including Berkeley Castle, Dover Castle, Penshurst Place and Lacock Abbey.

Dover Castle was used to double for the Tower of London, while several rooms at Penshurst Place stood in for Whitehall (York Place), the residence of Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII.

Kosminsky insisted on filming much of the interior scenes by real candlelight, which led some actors to collide with the scenery and raised concerns about fire risk on set.

The historically accurate lighting choices, including the use of candlelight for evening scenes, drew criticism from some viewers who found many scenes too dark to watch comfortably.

The second series, The Mirror and the Light, sparked controversy over its 'color-blind' casting of non-white actors in historical roles, with journalist Petronella Wyatt, a descendant of Thomas Wyatt, calling the choice 'absurd' since the character was played by a British actor of Egyptian origin.

Several roles were recast for the second series, including Timothy Spall replacing Bernard Hill as the Duke of Norfolk, Harriet Walter replacing Janet Henfrey as Lady Margaret Pole, and Harry Melling replacing Joel MacCormack as Thomas Wriothesley.