BBC Television Shakespeare

BBC Two (ended 1985)

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Show Summary

Premiered: Dec 01, 1978
Status: Ended

In 1978, Cedric Messina persuaded the British Broadcasting Corporation to take on the task of filming the whole canon of William Shakespeare's plays for television, under the title The Complete Dramatic Works of William Shakespeare. Throughout the project, which was finished in 1985, the BBC was able to secure leading actors of stage and screen and also big directing names. Whether as individual dramas or taken as a whole, the series is impressive, to say the least. ''''The play Edward III was not included in the series, as the balance of scholarly opinion at the time was that it was not by Shakespeare. Today, the decision might have gone the other way. ''''All of these productions of the plays have been sold to dozens of countries around the world and are used in the world of education more than they are for broadcasting. The major plays (such as Macbeth and Hamlet) are the most often repeated on television.''''The productions vary in length from 112 minutes for The Comedy of Errors to 228 for King Richard the Third. All are now available on DVD as well as VHS video.moreless

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Episode Guide

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S 1 : Ep 37	Titus Andronicus	Aired 4/27/85
S 1 : Ep 36	Love's Labour's Lost	Aired 1/5/85
S 1 : Ep 35	Much Ado About Nothing	Aired 12/22/84
S 1 : Ep 34	Pericles, Prince of Tyre	Aired 12/8/84
S 1 : Ep 33	The Life and Death of King John	Aired 11/24/84

Cast & Crew

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Robin Sachs

Bushy
Frank Thornton

Gremio
Geoffrey Chater

Brabantio

Fan Reviews (1)

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A stupendous project - and, all in all, a credit to the BBC.

9.5

"Superb"

By orswel, Jun 06, 2010 Report Abuse

It was a fantastic notion, and the BBC was very likely the only broadcasting company in the world which would have even attempted it. To have every single one of Shakespeare's plays performed on TV in a single series was a wonderful, daunting idea, and it is sad to reflect that it could never happen nowadays. (Once upon a time, around half a century ago, the BBC would routinely give us at least a couple of Shakespeare plays every year. Now, we get reality shows where actors try to prove to schoolchildren that Shakespeare isn't dull, for pity's sake.) This series went through three producers and took seven years and it was rather variable in quality, but, at its (quite frequent) best, it was a marvellous thing.moreless

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