Simon Schama's Shakespeare
2012 · 1 season · 2 episodes · Ended · BBC Two
Documentary
TMDB 10.0 · 1 votes
Simon Schama explores the life and times of William Shakespeare to shed a new and fascinating light on some of the greatest plays ever written. He asks the question: "What came first, Englishness, or Shakespeare's idea of it?" and produces a persuasive argument in favour of the latter.
Episodes
- S01E01This England2012-06-2260m
Schama explores how, in his history plays, Shakespeare created a vision of England that still rings true today. Against the backdrop of the Reformation, Shakespeare began to dramatize English history and the English character in a new and unprecedented way. From his first blockbuster, Henry VI, he made sure that his England was not just a place where King and Queens strutted and preened, but where ordinary Englishmen and women took centre stage.
- S01E02Hollow Crowns2012-06-2960m
Simon Schama explores Shakespeare’s attitude to the other great subject of his day - Kingship. He asks how far Shakespeare’s most profound tragedies, including Richard II, Hamlet, Macbeth and King Lear, were inspired by his own experience of writing for the courts of Elizabeth and James I.
