Sir Thomas Boleyn

Thomas Boleyn is a courtier on the make, a father who treats his daughters as instruments of advancement rather than people to protect. Ambitious and calculating, he angles for the king's favour, first pushing Mary toward Henry's bed and then, with sharper eyes, Anne. He is polished, patient, and entirely transactional.

Nick Dunning plays him without villain's swagger, which is what makes him unsettling: he's reasonable, articulate, always making the practical case. The writing lets his ambition masquerade as fatherly guidance, and Dunning's cool, unhurried delivery makes you feel how easily cruelty passes for good sense in a court built on advancement.