by Allan Fish
(UK 2012 520m) DVD2
Let this acceptance take
p Rupert Ryle Hodges, Gareth Neame, Sam Mendes, Pippa Harris d Rupert Goold, Richard Eyre, Thea Sharrock plays William Shakespeare ph Danny Cohen, Ben Smithard, Michael McDonough ed Trevor Waite, Lesley Walker, John Wilson m Adam Cork, Stephen Warbeck, Adrian Johnston art Andrew McAlpine, Donal Woods, Max Berman cos Odile Dicks-Mireaux, Annie Symons
Tom Hiddleston (Hal/Henry V), Jeremy Irons (Henry IV), Simon Russell Beale (Sir John Falstaff), Ben Whishaw (Richard II), Rory Kinnear (Bolingbroke), Clemence Poésy (Queen Isabella), John Hurt (Chorus), David Morrissey (Northumberland), Alun Armstrong (older Northumberland), David Suchet (York), James Purefoy (Mowbray), Patrick Stewart (John of Gaunt), Lindsay Duncan (Duchess of York), Julie Walters (Mistress Quickly), Tom Georgeson (Bardolph), Joe Armstrong (Hotspur), Michelle Dockery (Kate Percy), Maxine Peake (Doll Tearsheet), David Dawson (Poins), Harry Lloyd (Mortimer), David Hayman (Worcester), Iain Glen (Warwick), David Bradley (gardener), David Bamber (Justice Shallow), Lambert Wilson (Charles VI), Melanie Thierry (Princess Katherine), Geoffrey Palmer (Lord Chief Justice), Paul Ritter (Pistol), Anton Lesser (Exeter), Owen Teale (Fluellen), Geraldine Chaplin (Alice),
2012 was always going to be a patriotic year for the British; Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, London Olympics and the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death. The BBC prepared for this landmark and, though the summer of 2012, we had a host of programming, from a typically gripping documentary from Simon Schama to behind the scene documentaries with actors Derek Jacobi, Jeremy Irons and David Tennant. Yet all paled beside the adaptations of four successive Shakespeare history plays, from Richard II through Henry IV Parts I & II to Henry V. What we were given was, despite limitations of budget, a series to at least bear comparison to the legendary An Age of Kings.
Purists may complain that there are liberties taken with the text, whole swathes and even scenes have been excised and not always for the better. In Henry V alone we have to do without the treachery of the three nobles, the butchery of the boys at the battle and the omission completely of the Scots, English and Irish captains. Yet the survival of the boy from the old Eastcheap crowd bears fruit in a touching final scene in which the boy is shown to survive and grow up to be Chorus, telling the story from the aisles of Henry’s funeral. In Richard II, the king is seen as a little effeminate, but also as a Christ parallel, in his own eyes, as we see a painting of Christ crucified seemingly brought to life (or to death) as Richard is slain in Pontefract Castle.
Throughout there are visual touches that make you wonder why it hadn’t been done before, and in recollection of some of cinema’s great historical pieces. As Henry IV charges over the dead at the Battle of Shrewsbury we see the dead Heston ride across the sands at the end of El Cid. Aumerle drags Richard’s coffin like Django. The crown is seen to float in mid-air in a confrontation between Richard and Bolingbroke, taunting both holder and usurper. Falstaff makes his honour speech as a soliloquy on the battlefield. All the cast are superb – Morrissey and Georgeson play as if born to it, Whishaw is a complex martyred Richard, Russell Beale perhaps miscast but splendid as Falstaff, Irons relishing the chance to speak real dialogue again after The Borgias and, best of all, Hiddleston, fresh from perishing on Spielberg’s western front, a truly majestic Hal/Henry; delivering ‘we happy few’ literally to just a few nobles, and brilliant in the roleplay scene in Henry IV, doing an uncanny impression of the mannerisms and vocal inflections of Irons as his father for good measure. Any faults are to be forgiven, for TV of this power and grandeur have long since ceased to be the norm. And, as if by approval, on the night the final part showed on BBC2 and Hiddleston surveyed the battlefield, another Englishman was readying to ride to Paris as the first English winner of the Tour de France. Even Shakespeare couldn’t have written that one.
Must confess that as yet I’ve only seen Richard II, which was excellent, with Ben Whishaw in particular seeming perfect for the role – “a complex martyred Richard” is spot on. I have all the others recorded and will be watching them very soon, then returning to read your post again, Allan.
You should enjoy them, Judy. A slight tinge of regret they didn’t do the whole lot to Richard III, but to be fair, doing an opened out Henry VI would be impossible as half of it is a battle or a siege and the budget wouldn’t stretch to it.
Interesting review, as I’ve just finished watching the final part.
I wouldn’t say that any flaws should be forgiven due to it’s grand ambition, that would only leave half the review.
For me, Jeremy Irons stole the show in the middle plays, and this is where Tom Hiddleston’s ‘Hal/Henry V’ really comes alive. Simon Russell Beale’s Falstaff takes time to get used to but has enough screen time to deliver the goods (though never effacing previous big screen performances). Ben Whishaw is quite remarkable, in that his perofrmace seems like a whisp of a memory, so effete is he. I watch the BBC 1979 version immediately afterwards and Jacobi’s version is similarly charged but more real, Whishaw is almost delightfully ghostly. Rory Kinnear as Bolingbroke is solid though there isn’t much resemblance between him and Irons. David Suchet and Patrick Stewart provide excellent background support. The first part plays with such immensely tight close-ups, with Shakespeare’s dialogue softly splayed on as if done in a half remembered haze on a summer’s day, that it ideally sets the scene of the meat of the series – the transformation of Hal to Henry.
What’s remarkable, and here I’d have to disagree with Allan, is that the budget was fairly large and it showed all through. Having watched ‘Game of Thrones’ where men are on foot because of budgetary limitions, ‘The Hollow Crown’ is rife with horseplay, savage battles with all of the mess and horror of close combat, hand to hand fighting. Indeed, ‘Game of Thrones’ seems a good reference point here.
The first three segments are superbly directed, and though the Hal/Falstaff dynamic is less effecting than Welles’ ‘The Chimes of Midnight’, each of these brings it’s own little variations and pleasures, it’s own rich imagery, such as Hiddleston being drenched under a torrent of red wine from a cask’s open tap, or Irons forlornly wondering the corridors of the palace, casting lond shadows, with sentries half dozing.
The weak flaws in the show…well, there is the direction of the last piece – so unsure of itself, it doesn’t know whether to film the battle is slow motion or the frenzied cutting of the other segments and Welles’ classic. Nor is there the brooding, charged sense of the dramatic, of momentous being decided in the court, “tennis balls, my liege” has a fire coming from Brian Blessed in Brangh’s ‘Henry V’. Aside from Againcourt “we happy few”, Hiddleston’s performance has faded, none of the others are there and thereabouts.
Then there some idiotic casting, how can anyone cast a black dude as “The Duke of York”? Five hundred years ago, as part of nobility! This is just colour blind casting with no reference to historical data and he only has a couple of sentences, it’s very minor but such a glaring stupidity. It’s an appeal to the minorities who might not be into the Bard. It’s the worst form of tokenism and of political correctness. Kids are going to get a pretty warped Orwellian impression of history. I expect that if the Beeb ever did a drama of the founding of the ‘Declaration of Independence’, they’d stick in some colour. Which pretty much makes a mockery of history. Now, I could be wrong here, but wikipedia says that ‘The Duke of York’ plays a major part in Shakespeare’s ‘Richard II’ and a minor one in ‘Henry V’ – so I’m assuming that David Suchet’s character is the same one as that portrayed by the black actor (had a look for the name on IMDB, but it hasn’t been entered yet), or at least the same family. If it’s the former, it’s a howler of the first magnitude and the director should be in Children’s TV, cleaning the floor or fetching the tea, if it’s the latter – then someone’s got over the fence and everyone has been too polite to mention it.
One other thing that was slightly annoying, was the deliberate attempt to make it appeal to the shallow end of modern tastes. Hal’s costuming has been deliberately de-periodised, so that he wears a cool leather jacket, that might be right for the new Dr. Who which tried avoid any show eccentricity, but is so cool and out of history, that a person could easily wear it to the local wine bar, club or even pub and no one would even bat an eyelid. It’s the same with all his costumes, as if youngsters and adults of all ages, seeing something in period, will turn over the channel. There is also an appeal to the women, here is the costume designer:
“We looked at war films and thought about what it was like to be a soldier. We wanted to appeal to a war film audience, to contemporise it and strip out all the pageantry and pare things down.”
“We made his armour out of rubber and he was sewn into things at times. It was precisely fitted so he could move and look sexy because he’s got an amazing physique.”
“Also we very deliberately put everybody in leather trousers. Because they are in the rain we could wipe them clean so they only needed one pair. It gave them a masculinity and a sexuality and a warrior-likeness.”
There’s something in those statements, underlying them, that’s ever so slightly shallow. Like a friend pretending to be interested in a topic being discussed by really oggling a woman’s rack, salivating over her tits. In that way, it’s remeniscent of Gene Roddenberry’s dressage of the female officers and guests of the Starship Enterprise, aimed at the lowest common dominator – the guy drinking a six pack of beer. Here, I think they are trying too hard to appeal to female demographic. Strangely, they filmed the last play first, so the Thea Sharrock seems to have had a huge say in the design of the costumes.
So, overall – a valiant effort, some superb performances, vividly directed to give it a punch, yet let down by the last play – which is inferior and less dramatically less intense, less involving than both big screen classics.
Overall, it’s been a real treat. At last, a bit of life in the BBC. Three out of four stars.
Time to watch ‘An Age of Kings’ and the second part of the ‘The Devil’s Crown’.
Would that we could watch The Devil’s Crown, Bobby, being as two episodes are apparently lost and it’s now considered gone.
Allan, there is a mistake – and it’s quite widespread – the whole of ‘The Devil’s Crown’ exists. It is currently being shown, somewhere or other. I just saw the second episode last night.
If you are ever wondering if something survives, there is only one website to hit, I’ve loved it for ages. Something for our crowd to save in their bookmarks. The page is set on ‘Play for Today’ but just type in any show and they have the most comprehensive set-up. A real godsend.
http://www.lostshows.com/default.aspx?programme=a57df962-dad1-40fb-a479-67ce68895b65
I need to get hold of it somewhere, do you have the full series?
A Useful site, Bobby, but it only tells me it survies not how to see it.
Been wanting to see this for 25 years, no-one has it.
Allan, I have the first two episodes, which appeared on two major torrent sites in the last week or two. There is a slight logo in the corner suggesting that these are being broadcast abroad (France). They are English language and I’m hoping more and more pop up as they are broadcast, though I could be wrong and these may be the only ones that appear. Would you like a link to the torrent site. I watched them on the computer.
I can’t download torrents, Bobby, but if you send me the link, I’ll see if someone can download them for me. Thanks.
Whoops, meant to say, Beale has the cunning, but lacks the warmth and charisma of the Falstaff. Which is probably why I wasn’t emotionally affected, by King Henry’s rejection.