Tag Archives: william shakespeare

Upstart Crow: Series Two. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: David Mitchell, Gemma Whelen, Liza Tarbuck, Harry Enfield, Paula Wilcox, Helen Monks, Tim Downie, Dominic Coleman, Mark Heap, Rob Rouse, Steve Spiers, Jocelyn Jee Esien, Adam Harley.

It doesn’t seem that long ago that Ben Elton, one of the prestigious and prolific comedy writers of his generation, was asked to step in and take what was a perhaps seen as a series that confused some, baffled others and had those who had the wherewithal to not only admire Rowan Atkinson but who also understood the intricacies of historical comedy, heavily borrowing dialogue from William Shakespeare, to the absolute heights of the British comedy mountain.

Upstart Crow: Series Two. Television Review. full post

(553 words, estimated 2:13 mins reading time)

Much Ado About Nothing, Film Review. FACT Cinema.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Alex Denisof, Amy Acker, Nathan Fillion, Clark Gregg, Reed Diamond, Fran Kranz, Jillian Morgese, Sean Maher, Spencer Treat Clark, Riki Lindhome, Ashley Johnson, Emma Bates, Tom Lenk, Nick Kocher, Joshua Zar, Paul Meston, Romy Rosemont, Elsa Guillet-Chapuis.

Quite simply, every actor and director really wants to get their hands on big budget version of one of William Shakespeare’s works. The doom laden chorus who persistently suggest that the man, who along with William Tyndale can be seen as one of the fathers of modern English, is not hip, not important enough to young cinema goers and that the language leaves people cold, could do worse than actually attend the screening of Much Ado About Nothing as it revels in the language, makes it completely accessible and performs superbly.

Much Ado About Nothing, Film Review. FACT Cinema. full post

(458 words, estimated 1:50 mins reading time)

Purplecoat Productions Will Bring Titus Andronicus To The Unity Theatre Stage.

 A Shakespearean tragedy of hatred, murder and cruelty. An embittered Roman General returns from war, having captured the Queen of the Goths and her three sons. Sacrificing the eldest, in memory of his own sons killed in battle, he provokes the Queen’s hatred but when she marries the new Emperor of Rome, she begins to plot her murderous revenge.

Purplecoat Productions bring one of Shakespeare’s and history’s most underrated tragedies, the excellent Titus Andronicus, to the Unity Theatre on February 5th and 6th.  The company have recently thrilled audiences at the Lantern Theatre on Blundell Street with their superb version of Little Voice and aim to hit the heights once more with this production.

Purplecoat Productions Will Bring Titus Andronicus To The Unity Theatre Stage. full post

(227 words, estimated 54 secs reading time)

The King And The Playwright, A Jacobean History. Television Review.

Picture from the B.B.C.

Originally published by L.S. Media. May 11th 2012

L.S. Media Rating ****

It was a time of turmoil, political instability, plots, attempted assassinations, plague and unheard of unions and William Shakespeare was there to capture it all.

American Scholar James Shapiro’s insightful look at the decade between King James III coming to the English throne after the death of the much loved Queen Elizabeth, and William Shakespeare finally retiring to his beloved Stratford-Upon- Avon, was captured over the course of three programmes titled The King and The Playwright.

The King And The Playwright, A Jacobean History. Television Review. full post

(388 words, 1 image, estimated 1:33 mins reading time)

The Hollow Crown, Henry IV Part One. B.B.C. Television Review.

Originally published by L.S. Media. July 11th 2012

L.S. Media Rating ****

Cast: Tom Hiddleston, Jeremy Irons, Julie Walters, Maxine Peake, Tom Georgeson, Simon Russell Beale, Alun Armstrong, Joe Armstrong, Harry Lloyd, Michelle Dockery, Robert Pugh.

If the first in the B.B.C.’s Hollow Crown adaptations of William Shakespeare’s history plays Richard II focused on the nature of chivalry in the time of noble kings, then the second, Henry IV, Part One focused on the story of what was too come. With an elderly Henry on the throne of England and with the playboy Prince of Wales taking up with thieves, robbers and undesirables in the taverns of Cheapside, it was more of an eye on how the boy, one of the best loved characters in Shakespeare and royal history, became the man he was to become.

The Hollow Crown, Henry IV Part One. B.B.C. Television Review. full post

(493 words, estimated 1:58 mins reading time)