Historical drama TV series is the final installment in the Wolf Hall trilogy by Hilary Mante

The Godfather III, The Return of the Jedi and Paddington in Peru.

Those are examples of franchises in which the third part of a trilogy doesn’t quite live up to its predecessors.

No doubt fans of Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall books were concerned that the final book in her Wolf Hall series, The Mirror & the Light, wouldn’t be as good either.

However, they needn’t have worried – it might not have won the Booker Prize, as its forebears had, but it’s still a masterpiece.

The first two books, Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies, were condensed into one series, but The Mirror & the Light has a run all of its own, and although there was a nine-year gap between the two, largely the same team returned to make it, which has ensured the quality has remained high – critics have been falling over themselves to lavish praise on the historical drama.

For Mark Rylance, who plays the central figure of Thomas Cromwell, picking up with old colleagues has been one of the joys of taking part in the show, particularly director and executive producer Peter Kosminsky.

“Peter and I go back to the first time he wrote and directed a fiction,” explains the Oscar-winning actor.

“He began with very important documentaries and he’s always been a very brave storyteller.

"He doesn’t use fiction to escape from things, but rather to amplify or give focus to what’s happening in the present times.

“It’s very much like working with a brother. It’s the closest relationship I’ve had in film-making.

"He’s impeccably organised and wonderfully flexible to what the actors bring to the scenes.

"He visits you every morning in the make-up truck to find out how you’re feeling.”

Kosminksy thinks those visits are crucial: “It’s a good moment to talk to the cast because they’re usually quite relaxed, so it’s a good moment for me to talk to them about the scene ahead.

"Sometimes Damian (Lewis, who plays Henry VIII) and Mark had found lines in the novel – and this is a very faithful adaptation – that we had not included.

“Of course, I won’t always agree to include it, but my general instinct is that if an actor, in preparing for the scene, feels that additional lines would enhance what they’re trying to do and they can deliver it in a way that doesn’t feel written, I’d like to include it.”

“Peter is meticulous,” adds Lewis.

“He’s unbelievably well prepared and knows the story inside out – who’s just lost their head, who’s in power, who has got a small force amassing up in Yorkshire, who hasn’t, what the French are doing – at any given moment of the story.

"And so his ability to place you in the story perfectly is brilliant.

“And I just love working with Mark. It’s like tennis, when you hit something with a bit of slice and it comes back with topspin. It’s really fun. He’s not ‘Sir Mark Rylance’ for no reason.”

Indeed he isn’t, and that’s why, as those who have been watching will tell you, this series is hitting aces every time.