The BBC Shakespeare

[poliphilo]

Actually, we do own five versions of Hamlet. I'd forgotten the BBC production- with Derek Jacobi- which Ailz watched by herself.

It was a great idea of the BBC's to televise the whole of Shakespeare. Trouble is they did it so badly. I've only watched a few of the productions, but they all fall into the Brookian category of "deadly theatre".  Shakespeare is too vital to be stifled altogether, but if you're going to watch these it's best to remind yourself beforehand that it's going to be like peering through a dirty window pane.  Ailz gave up on the BBC Cymbeline about a quarter of the way through.  I persisted because I really wanted to see this fascinating text acted- and the BBC's version is the only one there is.  And yes, it's slow and reverential and devoid of fun- as if everyone involved knows they're performing a weighty public service (which in a way they are)- but it's better than nothing- or at least I suppose it is.

If I were doing a complete Shakespeare for TV, the first thing I'd do would be assemble a company, including directors, designers and technicians- and give them contracts for however long the project was going to last.  Then I'd workshop and workshop and workshop- and I wouldn't start filming individual plays until we'd developed a company style and some philosophy about how best to translate these big-boned and intensely theatrical works to the intimacy of the small screen.

Comments

[brttvns.livejournal.com]

I thought the BBC did a great job with the Histories, keeping the same cast throughout the nine related plays of Richard II, Henry IV parts I & II, Henry V, Henry VI parts I, II, & III, and Richard III (Ron Cook's Richard I thought was excellent, brining that sly humour essential to the best Shakespearean villains - Michael Kitchen did the same as Edmund the Bastard in the BBC's KIng Lear).
However I do agree that a lot of the productions were a little flat - Coriolanus and As You Like It I thought very disappointing. Of the comedies Much Ado About Nothing I thought reasonable, but have seen it much funnier on stage.I thought John Cleese's performance as Petruchio in The Taming Of The Shrew excellent,but the production as a whole unsatisfying. And the often neglected Titus Andronicus I thought very good (great lead performance by Trevor Peacock).
But who wants to see Roger Daltry in th Comedy Of Errors? Error it surely was!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

There are good performances in most of these productions. Derek Jacobi is an excellent Richard II. Michael Pennington is really fine as Posthumus in Cymbeline.

As You Like It- exceptional in having been filmed on location- is pleasant enough. I particularly like James Bolam's Touchstone.

[michaleen.livejournal.com]

The only BBC Shakespeare production I remember seeing was Lear, with Olivier in the lead. Wasn't too terrible, I thought, but then I'm hardly one to judge these things.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

The Olivier Lear was actually a one-off- and made, not by the BBC, but by the independent TV company Granada. I thought Olivier was very good in it, but the production was strangely old-fashioned.

[michaleen.livejournal.com]

I stand corrected, my only excuse being it was a very long time ago when I saw it. The production did seem very old-fashioned, as I recall. Didn't it have Leo McKern and Brian Blessed in that one as well?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I guess McKern played Gloucester.

My memories of it are pretty hazy.

For a while Granada- which is based in my home city of Manchester- was making the best drama on British TV. It had Olivier under contract- and gave him a free hand. It also made the ground-breaking Brideshead Revisited- and the definitive Sherlock Holmes series with Jeremy Brett.