The latest BBC
Shakespeare productions of his Histories, The
Hollow Crown are now available on DVD. If
you were badly taught Shakespeare at school they are an effective antidote.
If you love Shakespeare, they are a joy.
In 2012 the BBC showed Richard
II, Henry IV parts I and II, and Henry
V, taking us from Henry Bolingbroke’s rebellion against his cousin Richard II,
through Henry IV troubles with his son and heir, Prince Hal who was distracted from his role
and duties by John Falstaff until as
Henry V he assumed the royal and responsibilities and fought at Agincourt. These plays were wonderful, with casts that
included Ben Wishaw, Rory Kinnear, David Suchet, Lindsey Duncan, Patrick Steward, Jeremy Irons,
Julie Walters, Maxine Peake, Tom Hiddleston, and Simon Russell
Beale.
The new series takes us through the unhappy reign of Hal’s son, Henry VI, as the
family of Richard Plantagenet, the Yorkshire claimants symbolised by the White
Rose, gain power and eventually the
throne, leading up to Richard III.
Adrian Dumbar, Hugh Bonneville, Michael Gambon, Sally
Hawkins, Sophie Okenedo, Judy Dench, Keeley Hawes, Andrew Scott, and Benedict Cumberbatch were here, and they
are only a few of the British stars
lending their talents to Dominic Cooke’s brilliant Direction and his adaptation
of the original scripts along with Ben Power. And
what an adaptation it is. They have done
an amazing job throughout the series, reducing most of the plays to 2 hours,
cutting to the bone, sacrificing some sub-plots, drastically reducing some speeches,
but never decreasing the impact, complexity or depth of the characters. This is never Shakespeare lite, it is
Shakespeare concentrated. Of course
the latest three plays lead us to Richard III, with Benedict Cumberbatch in the
role.
In an interview on the BBC website he said
‘I took this part because it has some of the most
extraordinary, visceral gut-punching language and action that you get in any of
the Shakespeare dramas. Richard III is
a tragedy, but you only really appreciate that tragedy if you have seen Richard
through all the plays and have met the adolescent who becomes the despot who becomes
the regretful, nightmare-haunted wreck before he dies in battle.’
Cumberbatch is utterly
convincing. As are those playing the three central
women; Cecily, his bitter and anguished mother played by Judy
Dench; the vengeful warrior Queen
Margaret, Henry VIs’ wife/widow played
by Sophie Okonedo; and Elizabeth, Richard’s sister-in-law, played by Keeley Hawes. There is an electrifying scene when these
three women meet and curse Richard in the woods, and unless you have followed their stories in
the previous two plays you cannot understand the depth of their revulsion, bile
and hatred.
I
did not find Richard’s wooing of Anne Neville as persuasive as when I saw Ian McKellan do it on stage in 1995 (the
film version of that production was somehow cruder) but Phoebe Fox as Anne
Neville was attractive enough.
And
here’s a puzzle. Tom Sturridge is
credited as Henry VI, the Tudor King who takes over from the Plantagenet’s, but I am sure he is actually played by Harry
Treadaway, who was Victor Frankenstein in the Penny Dreadful TV series.
Whoever it was I thought he was unconvincing as Henry VI, not really at
home with the rhythm of the language or having the gravitas that the founder of
the Tudor dynasty needs.
But these
are minor quibbles. I really liked the way that when Richard
actually became King he descended into paranoia and could no longer confide in
us, his audience. Now he trusted
no-one, so all we got were blank or suspicious stares, and a ferocious nervous
tapping of the table. Of course TV is
so good for this kind of psychological
thriller, allowing us to creep up on the characters and allowing them to make
sly asides and cast conspirational or ironic glances to us without the
difficulty of being on stage.
I still have all three plays on my hard-drive
and I will buy the box set. I strongly
recommend them.
