"BBC - Richard II" Topic
6 Posts
All members in good standing are free to post here. Opinions expressed here are solely those of the posters, and have not been cleared with nor are they endorsed by The Miniatures Page.
For more information, see the TMP FAQ.
Back to the Renaissance Media Message Board Back to the British Wargaming Message Board
|
 Midpoint  | 01 Jul 2012 10:55 a.m. PST |
Anyone catch the first in the BBC 'Hollow Crown' quad of Shakespeare last night? First one was Richard II. Patrick Stewart FTW! |
| mollinary | 01 Jul 2012 11:46 a.m. PST |
Yes, and it was brilliant – truly thought provoking, tragic and magnificent at the same time. A gem. Mollinary PS could have done without Jacobi's Shakespeare wasn't Shakespeare bit following it! |
| Norman D Landings | 01 Jul 2012 2:08 p.m. PST |
I loved it. Stewart delivering the 'Scepter'd Isle' speech straight into the camera… priceless. Richard and his sychophants looking like a New Romantic band posing for an album cover. The Welsh troops, portrayed as painted, hairy savages wearing squashed ferrets as hairpieces. Not exactly PC, but entertaining. I didn't like the CGI.
Where it was used, it looked cheap and obvious – the burning castle, the ocean background during the Queen's journey into exile. Jarring. |
 Jeremy Sutcliffe | 01 Jul 2012 3:28 p.m. PST |
I'm not too sure about the Christ/Richard Christ/St Sebastian analogies at the end. I'm going to be interested in watching the two Henry VIs in the weeks to come. Only the other week Sky Arts2 had the globe productions of both plays and I loved the interaction with the audience and the humour that could be extracted from quite dry scenes. However well the Beeb does them, I feel they will have lost something intended for the original. |
| 1815Guy | 02 Jul 2012 3:49 a.m. PST |
Yes, very good, and it followed a screening of the play to put it all in context. Interesting spin on Richard II in the play, as Richard was actually a pretty good king for the common man, with improvements in Law for all to enjoy. Unfortunately he was more of a thinker than an action hero, at a time when politics and rule was about brutality and armed prowess. Jacobi keeps going on about Shakespeare not doing his own material, but I'm not convinced. He gives no credit, for example, for input by Shakespeare's Italian mistress, the published works that inspired and informed Shakespeare's plays and ignores the 12 year gap in his biography at a key time of his life. Still, a great series, and the BBC has done it yet again. |
| Trajanus | 04 Jul 2012 6:36 a.m. PST |
I'm not too sure about the Christ/Richard Christ/St Sebastian analogies at the end Its supposed to signify Richard's adherence to the Divine Right of Kings stuff. His idea that he was suffering as the Christ/Martyr as it was his job by Divine appointment and no one else understood how tough it all was being perfect 24/7. Especially when you acted like a capricious pillock all the time (I added that bit) |
|
