BBC Television Shakespeare


BBC Television Shakespeare
Genre Drama
Directed by David Hugh Jones
Jane Howell
Elijah Moshinsky
Country of origin  United Kingdom
Language(s) English
No. of seasons 7
No. of episodes 37 (List of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s) Jac Venza
Broadcast
Original channel BBC
Original run 1 December 1978 – 1 April 1985
Status Ended

The BBC Television Shakespeare was a set of television adaptations of the plays of Shakespeare, produced by the BBC between 1978 and 1985. It was a project completed by corporations in the United Kingdom and the United States.

Contents

Production

The series was initiated by Cedric Messina, and produced by Messina, Jonathan Miller, and Shaun Sutton; directors and other crew varied from play to play. The entire series has been released in the US on video and DVD, under the banner title The Complete Dramatic Works of William Shakespeare and in the UK on DVD as The (BBC TV) Shakespeare Collection. The BBC had produced Shakespeare plays previously (An Age of Kings (BBC, 1960) and Spread of the Eagle (BBC, 1963)), but this new comprehensive project required American partners to provide access to the United States market and provide financial support. Time-Life, Exxon, Metropolitan Life, and Morgan Guarantee Trust Company became partners in this venture. The brief description of the series' goal was that the plays were to be set in Shakespeare's own time or in the historical period of the events (such as ancient Rome for Julius Caesar, around 1400 for Richard II), that they were to be no more than 2½ hours long, (many productions were actually longer with Richard III running to 4 hours) and they were to have "maximum acceptability to the widest possible audience." [1]

The productions were shot on video, with multiple cameras, at the BBC Television Centre studios, although As You Like It and Henry VIII were done on location. The series featured stage actors who specialized in Shakespeare, and on occasion top British actors of the day such as Derek Jacobi (in Richard II and Hamlet) and Anthony Quayle (Falstaff in the two parts of Henry IV). A quick shooting schedule (six days for each play) and low budget somewhat hampered some of the productions.

Variations from today's classification of the plays

The thirty-seven plays (which were, at the time, classified as 17 comedies, 10 tragedies, and 10 histories) of the Shakespearean canon were presented in seven series. Since The Two Noble Kinsmen was considered to be primarily the work of John Fletcher and Shakespeare's authorship of Edward III was still in doubt at the time, these plays were not included in these series.

The 37 Plays[2]

Series one, Cedric Messina, producer

Romeo and Juliet

Richard II

    • Taping dates, April 12-17, 1978
    • First transmitted in the UK, December 10, 1978
    • First transmitted in the US, March 28, 1979
    • Directed by David Giles
    • Derek Jacobi as Richard II
    • Jon Finch as Henry Bolingbroke
    • John Gielgud as John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster
    • Charles Gray as Edmund Langley, Duke of York
    • Wendy Hiller as the Duchess of York
    • Mary Morris as the Duchess of Gloucester
    • David Swift as the Duke of Northumberland
    • Clifford Rose as the Bishop of Carlisle
    • Charles Keating as Duke of Aumerle
    • Richard Owens as Thomas Mowbray
    • Janet Maw as the Queen
    • Jeffrey Holland as the Duke of Surrey
    • Jeremy Bulloch as Henry Percy
    • Robin Sachs as Bushy
    • Damien Thomas as Bagot
    • Alan Dalton as Green
    • David Dodimead as Lord Ross
    • John Flint as Lord Willoughby
    • Carl Oatley as Earl Berkeley
    • William Whymper as Sir Stephen Scroop
    • John Barcroft as Earl of Salisbury
    • David Garfield as Welsh Captain
    • Desmond Adams as Sir Pierce of Exton
    • Joe Ritchie as groom
    • Paddy Ward as keeper
    • Bruno Barnabe as Abbot of Westminster
    • Jonathan Adams as gardener
    • Alan Collins as gardener's man
    • John Curless as Lord Fitzwater
    • Terry Wright as murderer
    • Ronald Fernee as servant
    • Tim Brown as herald
    • Mike Lewin as herald
    • Phillanda Sewell as Queen's lady
    • Sandra Frieze as Queen's lady

As You Like It

Julius Caesar

Measure for Measure

Henry VIII

Note: A production of Much Ado About Nothing directed by Donald McWhinnie and starring Penelope Keith and Michael York[3] was the first production to be recorded in the series, but was thought unsatisfactory and not broadcast. This version still exists. (See series seven for the broadcast production.)

Series two, Cedric Messina, producer

Henry IV, part 1

Henry IV, part 2

Henry V

Twelfth Night

The Tempest

Hamlet

Series three, Jonathan Miller, producer

The Taming of the Shrew

The Merchant of Venice

All's Well That Ends Well

The Winter's Tale

Timon of Athens

Antony and Cleopatra[4]

Series four, Jonathan Miller, producer

Othello

Troilus and Cressida

    • taping dates, July 28-August 5, 1981
    • first transmitted in the UK, November 7, 1981
    • first transmitted in the US, May 17, 1982
    • directed by Jonathan Miller
    • Anton Lesser as Troilus
    • Suzanne Burden as Cressida
    • Peter Whitbread as Calchas

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Series Five, Jonathan Miller and Shaun Sutton, producers

King Lear

    • taping dates, March 26-April 2, 1982
    • first transmitted in the UK, September 19, 1982
    • first transmitted in the US, October 18, 1982
    • directed by Jonathan Miller
    • Michael Hordern as King Lear
    • Brenda Blethyn as Cordelia
    • John Shrapnel as Kent

Cymbeline[4]

    • taping dates, July 29-August 5, 1982
    • first transmitted in the US, December 20, 1982
    • first transmitted in the UK, July 10, 1983
    • directed by Elijah Moshinsky
    • Michael Pennington as Posthumous
    • Helen Mirren as Imogen
    • Robert Lindsay as Iachimo
    • Michael Kitchen as Edmund
    • Brenda Blethyn as Cordelia

The Merry Wives of Windsor

Henry VI, part 1

Henry VI, part 2

Henry VI, part 3

    • taping dates, February 10-17, 1982
    • first transmitted in the UK, January 16, 1983
    • first transmitted in the US, April 24, 1983
    • directed by Jane Howell
    • Peter Benson as Henry VI
    • Julia Foster as Margaret
    • Brian Protheroe as King Edward IV
    • Bernard Hill as Richard Plantaganet, Duke of York
    • Brian Deacon as Earl of Oxford
    • Ron Cook as Richard, Duke of Gloucester

Richard III

    • taping dates, March 31-April 6, 1982
    • first transmitted in the UK, January 23, 1983
    • first transmitted in the US, May 2, 1983
    • directed by Jane Howell
    • Ron Cook as Richard III
    • Brian Deacon as Henry, Earl of Richmond
    • Brian Protheroe as King Edward IV

Series six, Shaun Sutton, producer

Macbeth[4]

    • taping dates, June 22-28, 1982
    • first transmitted in the US, October 17, 1983
    • first transmitted in the UK, November 5, 1983
    • directed by Jack Gold
    • Nicol Williamson as Macbeth
    • Jane Lapotaire as Lady Macbeth
    • Tony Doyle as Macduff

The Comedy of Errors

    • taping dates, November 3-9, 1983
    • first transmitted in the UK, December 24, 1983
    • first transmitted in the US, February 20, 1984
    • directed by James Cellan Jones
    • Michael Kitchen as Antipholus
    • Roger Daltrey as Dromio
    • Susanne Bertish as Adriana
    • Charles Gray as Solinus
    • Wendy Hillier as the Abbess

The Two Gentlemen of Verona

The Tragedy of Coriolanus[4]

    • taping dates, April 18-26, 1983
    • first transmitted in the US, March 26, 1984
    • first transmitted in the UK, April 21, 1984
    • directed by Elijah Moshinsky
    • Alan Howard as Coriolanus
    • Mike Gwilym as Aufidius

Pericles, Prince of Tyre[4]

Series seven, Shaun Sutton, producer

Much Ado About Nothing

Much Ado About Nothing is a gay-ass movie that no-one should have the slightest feeling to watch, as it has made no contribution to any English class anywhere across the Earth. Please think twice about buying/watching it at all in the future. I don't think that anyone really cares about who the director or the editor or the actors are so you don't need to read about them. Although, you need to know that the same guy from 'Life' - the T.V. show is Benedick (an anchor) in the movie. You don't need to know anything else about it.

King John

    • taping dates, February 1-7, 1984
    • first transmitted in the UK, November 24, 1984
    • first transmitted in the US, January 11, 1985
    • directed by David Giles
    • Leonard Rossiter as King John
    • George Costigan as Philip the Bastard

Love's Labour's Lost

    • taping dates, June 30-July 6, 1984
    • first transmitted in the UK, January 5, 1985
    • first transmitted in the US, May 31, 1985
    • directed by Elijah Moshinsky
    • Jonathan Kent as the King of Navarre
    • Maureen Lipman as the Princess of France
    • David Warner as Don Armado
    • Mike Gwilym as Berowne

Titus Andronicus[4]

Omissions and changes

  • Richard II
    • The trial/multiple challenges portion of Act IV is omitted.
    • All mention of Henry IV's son, later Henry V, is omitted.
  • Twelfth Night
    • Act 2, Scene 2 follows immediately after Act 1, Scene 5.
  • Cymbeline
    • Acts 4 and 5 are heavily cut, and scenes and speeches are freely rearranged.
  • Timon of Athens
    • Act 3, Scene 3 is heavily cut; the servant's monologue is totally omitted, though Max Arthur's Lucilius appears in the background for the scene. Various smaller cuts.

Footnotes

  1. ^ Susan Willis, The BBC Shakespeare Plays: Making the Televised Canon, (Chapel Hill & London: The University of North Carolina Press, 1991), 10-11; Screenonline: The BBC Television Shakespeare (1978-1985)
  2. ^ Given in the order of their first transmission dates
  3. ^ "Shakespeare in Performance", University of Victoria, Canada website.
  4. ^ a b c d e f The first transmission date in the United States is earlier than that in the United Kingdom.

External links

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William Shakespeare and his works
General information
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lost plays
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