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The BBC Television Shakespeare
1978 - 1985 5.2 (5 votes) 7 Seasons
Official Website
Genres
Drama Comedy
Networks
BBC Two

The BBC Television Shakespeare

Overview

The BBC Television Shakespeare is a series of British television adaptations of the plays of William Shakespeare, created by Cedric Messina and produced by BBC Television. It was transmitted in the UK from 3 December 1978 to 27 April 1985 and spanned seven series. Development of the series began in 1975 when Messina saw that Glamis Castle would make a perfect location for an adaptation of Shakespeare's play As You Like It. On returning to London, he envisioned an entire series devoted exclusively to the dramatic works of Shakespeare. After encountering numerous problems trying to produce the series, Messina eventually pitched the idea to the BBC’s departmental heads and the series was greenlighted. The series as a whole received generally negative reviews from critics.

Key Crew

Producer: Shaun Sutton

Seasons

Season 1 poster
Season 1 (1978)

No overview available.

37 episodes

Episodes
Episode 1: Romeo & Juliet
1978-12-03

Patrick Ryecart and Rebecca Saire play the star crossed lovers in one of Shakespeare's best-loved plays.

Runtime: 168 min
Episode 2: King Richard the Second
1978-12-10

Derek Jacobi is King Richard II in the second of the BBC's new productions of Shakespeare.

Runtime: 157 min
Episode 3: As You Like It
1978-12-17

Classic comedy by William Shakespeare about the travails of lovers Rosalind and Orlando, who become entangled in a beguiling game of love, lust and mistaken identity.

Runtime: 150 min
Episode 4: Julius Caesar
1979-02-11

Shakespeare's great political thriller tells the story of the conspiracy against Caesar, his assassination and the defeat of his conspirators.

Runtime: 161 min
Episode 5: Measure For Measure
1979-02-18

Shakespeare's classic comedy occasionally veers into more troublesome territory, as the characters face dark and ambiguous moral choices.

Runtime: 145 min
Episode 6: The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight
1979-02-25

Classic play by William Shakespeare starring John Stride, Timothy West, Ronald Pickup, and Claire Bloom.

Runtime: 165 min
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Season 2 poster
Season 2 (1979)

No overview available.

6 episodes

Season 5 poster
Season 5 (1982)

No overview available.

7 episodes

Episodes
Episode 1: King Lear
1982-09-19

Classic play by William Shakespeare about an ageing King who decides to divide his Kingdom between his three daughters.

Runtime: 185 min
Episode 2: The Merry Wives of Windsor
1982-12-28

Comedy by William Shakespeare; the only one of his plays set in England in his own time. The roguish Sir John Falstaff attempts to seduce both Mistress Ford and Mistress Page, but finds both women are more than a match for him.

Runtime: 167 min
Episode 3: The First Part of Henry the Sixt
1983-01-02

A television presentation of the first part of Shakespeare's Henry VI. Henry V is dead and war continues with France. The Wars of the Roses are threatening and the Duke of York taunts the Earl of Somerset.

Runtime: 188 min
Episode 4: The Second Part of Henry the Sixt
1983-01-09

The BBC's screen production of William Shakespeare's Henry VI, Part II.

Runtime: 213 min
Episode 5: The Third Part of Henry the Sixt
1983-01-16

The BBC Production of William Shakespeare's Henry VI, Part III. Richard, Duke of Gloucester, aspiring to usurp the English crown plots to murder the deposed king in this concluding part of the Henry VI trilogy.

Runtime: 211 min
Episode 6: The Tragedy of Richard III
1983-01-23

The rise and fall of Richard, Duke of Gloucester, whose murderous Machiavellian schemes help him to the throne of England, but make him far too many enemies along the way.

Runtime: 239 min
Episode 7: The Tragedy of Richard III
1983-01-23

The rise and fall of Richard, Duke of Gloucester, whose murderous Machiavellian schemes help him to the throne of England, but make him far too many enemies along the way.

Runtime: 150 min

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