Shardlake (Season 1)

Shardlake (2024) is a British historical thriller series you can watch online on iFILM. Arthur Hughes plays Matthew Shardlake, a hunchbacked lawyer sent by Thomas Cromwell to investigate a suspicious death at a remote English monastery.

The year is 1536. Henry VIII is working through the monasteries one by one, and Scarnsea is due — or was, until Cromwell's envoy turned up dead before he could file his report. Shardlake arrives into a closed community with no interest in being questioned. Anthony Boyle plays his young assistant; Sean Bean takes on Cromwell in a few scenes that suggest the man's full reach without needing extra screen time.

Adapted from C.J. Sansom's 2003 debut novel, the series runs four episodes and leans heavily on Hughes' performance. He is a disabled actor playing a disabled lead, and that specificity — a man who has learned to use being underestimated — lands differently than it would as period costuming alone. Stream Shardlake (2024) online on iFILM.