Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

The BBC Shakespeare videos are now roughly 25 years old. Much criticized when first shown, they have stood the test of time well. Ironically, the plays most watchable today include many early entries in the series, done in the traditional style of BBC video drama. The later, "painterly" productions of Jonathan Miller and Elijah Moshinsky, directors brought in to "rescue" a supposedly failing venture, do not seem particularly superior today. Four of the five plays in this set are from early in the series, and the fifth, Richard III, was directed by Jane Howell, in her own unique style, and not by Miller or Moshinsky. Of Shakespeare's ten histories, eight can be grouped together as the continuous story of England's royal history from the late fourteenth to the late fifteenth century. These eight are customarily divided into two four-play sets ("tetralogies"), with the set covering the later period of history actually written earlier in Shakespeare's career. This boxed set includes one of the tetralogies complete (covering the earlier period, though written later) plus one play from the other. Richard II, Henry IV Part 1, Henry IV Part 2, and Henry V have continuity of plot, cast and direction. Several performances are outstanding: Anthony Quayle as Falstaff, Derek Jacobi as Richard II, Jon Finch as Bolingbroke/Henry IV, and David Gwillim as Hal/Henry V, Tim Pigott-Smith as "Hotspur". I regard Quayle as the definitive Falstaff of our time, though his portrayal is of the traditional lovable rogue, not the reconstructed Shakespearean "ideal man" lately promoted by Harold Bloom (a wrongheaded notion altogether, a perfect example of how even a genius can have silly ideas). David Giles' direction is superb, if traditional, and belies any notion that the series needed rescuing after its first season. It's heresy to endorse Shakespeare on video, but I believe these are among the best performances of these plays available in any medium, including the live stage, during my life. Janes Howells did an equally great, if very different, job with the other tetralogy: Henry VI Parts 1, 2, and 3 and Richard III. Unfortunately only Richard III is included here. Standing alone, this is just another of the many productions of that play, albeit a good one. As the final entry in the whole tetralogy, it gains immeasurably from the familiarity with the actors, plotlines and sets acquired in the earlier plays. For example, the sets, used in all four plays, go from pristine and brightly colored in the first play to dilapidated and gray in the fourth, mirroring England's descent into evermore violence and death. But they will merely seem odd to one watching only the fourth play. Similarly, the aged Queen Margaret is just an old crone in the last play; in the earlier plays we see her evolve from young beauty, to steely ruler, to one who has lost all. The final scene, in which she laughs hysterically while perched above a mound of dead, cannot resonate unless the earlier plays have been seen. So, my advice is, get Henry VI Parts 1, 2 and 3 from Ambrose video, and watch them before you watch this Richard III. The Henry VI plays are much better than their current reputation, and were superbly acted and directed for the BBC. If you don't do that, then stick with Olivier or McKellen for Richard III.