BBC The Hollow Crown

[PrettyVacant]

Heads up as this begins tonight - 2 hours 20 mins. of Richard II. It’s the first of four linked Shakespeare productions, with the BBC throwing everything at the screen in preemptive appeasement of those license payers unlikely to be impressed with the August programme schedules (the minor event occurring near Stratford, East London).

Anyway, some old stagers (Julie Walters, Jezza Irons, etc) and plenty of the current crop of popular tv types, inc. her off Downton Abbey and him off that clever thing from last year.

Mark Lawson’s (p)review:

The Hollow Crown: as good as TV Shakespeare can get?

Promo shots:

The Hollow Crown: BBC2's new Shakespeare films in pictures

Fancy this a lot. Hope it lives up to expectations or senior bods at BBC Drama wil be dodging javelins and worse.

[WotNot]

@PrettyVacant

Mark Lawson’s (p)review:
The Hollow Crown: as good as TV Shakespeare can get? | Television | The Guardian

This comment on that article made me smile:

Richard II! 100% Iambic pentameter! GET IN!!!

[Maserschmidt]

Wait,…John Cleese played Petrucchio?? Must find immediately…

[AK84]

Are they keeping original dialogue?

[Bridget_Burke]

Of course they’re keeping Shakespeare’s words!

The Houston Shakespeare Festival produces two plays every August, free in Hermann Park. Cut a bit, as most Shakespeare productions are, often in non-traditional settings & using modern casting practices–but not translated for us ignorant rednecks. So I imagine the BBC is playing things pretty straight–although the female parts will probably not be played by boys in drag…

Alex Hardy, from behind The Times paywall, on the first show:

In a TV world full of drama cutbacks, here’s a series that is lacking neither in ambition nor clout. In The Hollow Crown, the BBC is bringing four of Shakespeare’s History Plays to the small screen in feature-length adaptations. They are soaked with superlative talent: Sam Mendes and Pippa Harris executive produce; Kings Richard II, Henry IV and Henry V are played by Ben Whishaw, Jeremy Irons and Tom Hiddleston; other cast members include David Suchet, Patrick Stewart and Julie Walters. This first film works brilliantly both as a piece in itself and a scene-setter for the remaining three. “Let’s tell sad stories of the death of kings: how some have been deposed; some slain in war; some haunted by the ghosts they have deposed,” we hear Whishaw’s Richard II, above, say as the first luscious shot pans over his throne. And what follows is indeed haunted and haunting. It is a clever adaptation by the director Rupert Goold, who worked with his star to make a king inspired by Michael Jackson: twitchy, almost messianic, flanked by yes men … and a pet monkey. This is not to say it is gimmicky in the least:it is a stylish mix of dizzying twists, exquisite cinematography and last-bead-of-sweat acting from the likes of Suchet, Stewart, Rory Kinnear, Lindsay Duncan and David Morrissey.

So–when will it show up on American TV? By the way–the old BBC Shakespeare shows slagged in the OP’s link are not all bad. Well worth searching out if you like that sort of thing…

[Baker]

@Bridget_Burke

By the way–the old BBC Shakespeare shows slagged in the OP’s link are not all bad. Well worth searching out if you like that sort of thing…

Those are what got me to like Shakespeare. In high school the Bard was forced down our throats, and it seemed dull and stodgy. We never saw plays performed even.

So when I saw the BBC’s Measure for Measure(kind of by accident) I was amazed. I didn’t know Shakespeare could be funny. Or that he had cross dressing, dirty jokes, and foolin’ around.

That’s the play they should use to hook high schoolers with!

[PrettyVacant]

@AK84

Are they keeping original dialogue?

From Henry V:

We dudes, we happy dudes, we band of bro’s
For, like, he today that fronts the Feds and takes a hit
Shall be Bro numero uno …

[Baker]

@PrettyVacant

From Henry V:

We dudes, we happy dudes, we band of bro’s
For, like, he today that fronts the Feds and takes a hit
Shall be Bro numero uno …

Snerk!

[Northern_Piper]

@Maserschmidt

Wait,..John Cleese played Petrucchio?? Must find immediately…

It was a wonderful performance - Cleese was Petruchio.

[PrettyVacant]

Well, it wasn’t an easy watch - not one of the Bard’s more popular Histories, and for a reason I fancy - but, rather like exercise, you feel glad for it afterwards. This seems to sum up quite a lot for me:

In the end I watched them in broadcast order, one directly after the other, which was definitely the right way round. I knew that Ben Wishart’s camp, flutey and painfully self-conscious Richard put me in mind of someone, but I’m happy I didn’t realise it was Michael Jackson until afterward. In Jacobi’s documentary, the director Rupert Goold admitted he had begun by exploring the parallels between the weak and ineffective monarch and the deluded pop star, but claimed the only surviving by-product of the comparison was his decision to give Richard a monkey (a very good monkey, briefly but brilliantly deployed).

A parallel between Richard and the suffering Christ was also signposted, heavily but cleverly. This isn’t the director’s obsession, but Richard’s. He is a play-acting king, his rule a self-serving melodrama. As Jacobi, who essayed the part on TV in 1978, put it, “the great dichotomy of playing Richard is that he is always his own audience”. Wishart catches this sense of Richard brilliantly, and also his caprice. You get the feeling the king could be swayed by entreaty, even when you know he won’t be. It’s not that he cares for anyone else’s point of view – he simply hasn’t decided. So convinced is he of his divine right to rule, he is playing the whole business by ear. Wishart manages the near-impossible in a history play: he makes you momentarily doubt the outcome.

TV review: The Hollow Crown: Richard II; Derek Jacobi on Richard II; Mad Mad...

Some totally outstanding acting among the cast.

[amarinth]

This is on Great Performances on PBS tonight (in most areas) in the US.