Learning to play the lute | Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies | Royal Shakespeare Company

Joey Batey, the actor who plays the young musician Mark Smeaton in Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies, is learning to play the lute. He let us film one of his lessons with RSC musician and company band member Nick Lee.

[Liesmith]

This is like ordering a pie and finding a feast inside.

[RexusprimeIX]

"It's an actual instrument and I'm used to bluffing" I swear, this guy is an actual bard.

[JnEricsonx]

5 years later...."insert toss a coin meme here".

[Denimclover]

This just show up in everyone’s recommended too?

[lazymandiass]

For the first time ever, the random recommendation algorithm has made sense.

[halleyhall]

Dear God, he played lute earlier. He truly IS Jaskier.

[tamara.mw.]

so you're telling me this *isnt* a witcher interview

[EdwardTonai]

I like to imagine when the casting directors for The Witcher saw his audition (with live lute playing), they said "Holy s**t, RSC/West End/Broadway stage credits AND can play the lute? This guy is perfect for the role!"

[jesseg.]

I play the violin so I always look at performances of actors playing an instrument to see where they failed. Watching the TV show I was surprised how well they edited it. Now I know why it looks so good in the show. The actor's actually playing it. Holy feck I love him for that.

[Punchabearinnamouf]

This guy absolutely nailed Jaskier/Dandelion. The fact that he learned lute just adds to that.

[tuuurtles]

It's really strange that Netflix decided to find an actor who actually can play the instrument, how many shows did they make with actors just imitating playing an instrument. But I'm really glad they did, because I can't imagine anyone other than Joey playing Jaskier, the acting and the singing and hand gestures are amazing 😗👌 !

[vitocipponeri]

little did he knew he would get his lute robbed and broken by elves

[jerolopez]

"I'm used to bluffing"
Ffs this one's really jaskier

[namelessbard]

Oh wait I thought this is about Joey learning to play lute for The Witcher. And then I looked at the date and it’s actually 6 years old! It makes it cooler knowing Joey actually knew how to play lute even before he auditioned for Jaskier role.

[MuricaTurkey]

If this dude only knew back then how he was unknowingly, indirectly prepping to play one of the most iconic characters EVER...

[theintunity]

🎵When a humble bard, graced a ride along🎵

[MrMusicGuy]

This guy is gonna go places. Mark my words.

[panthersfly]

Secretly researching his role 5 years ahead of time!

[ShaneYeBoy]

Oops I thought this was a Witcher interview when I saw the vid

[Evija]

This skill definitely helped him get the role of Jaskier.