The show previously known as Prefaces To Shakespeare has now been renamed Shakespeare Uncovered and begins on BBC Four on Tuesday 19th June at 9pm as part of the BBC season devoted to the Bard. The programmes are repeated on Thursdays at 10.30pm.
David Tennant will be presenting one of six hour-long documentaries, each of which feature some of Shakespeare's best-loved plays. The series begins with Joely Richardson who, with contributions from her mother, Vanessa Redgrave, explores Shakespeare's women. Episode 2, on Tuesday 26th June, features Ethan Hawke, who studies Macbeth.
From the website of producers Ten Alps:
Shakespeare Uncovered
Series begins
Tuesday 19 June 2012 - BBC
Produced by
Blakeway `Shakespeare Uncovered' is a series of six films that tell
the stories behind and reveal the wonders within some of Shakespeare's greatest
plays.
This extraordinary
series of unique films, will combine new analysis and personal passion. Through
these films we investigate and reveal the extraordinary world and works of
William Shakespeare and their still vivid impact today. The
films combine interviews with actors, directors, and scholars, visits to
all the most important and exciting locations – clips from some of the most
celebrated productions and excerpts from the plays especially rehearsed and
performed at Shakespeare’s Globe.
In Twelfth Night
and As You Like It, Joely Richardson investigates (with a major contribution
from her mother Vanessa Redgrave) the legacy of the two great comedies and the
great comic heroines created by Shakespeare in those hugely popular plays.
In Macbeth, Ethan
Hawke sets out to prepare himself for the possibility of playing the role by
uncovering the true story behind the play, seeing some of the greatest
productions and discovering the extraordinary insights into the criminal mind
that Shakespeare reveals.
In Richard II,
Derek Jacobi returns to a role he played 30 years ago, helps actors at the
Globe with aspects of the play, reveals why it might have cost Shakespeare his
life - and shares with us some of the extraordinary political parallels within
the play that still resonate today – (with interviews and clips from the new
BBC film of the play).
In Hamlet, David
Tennant whose own RSC performance was a huge hit, meets other actors who have
played the role – from the legendary David Warner in the 1960s to the recent
Jude Law. He also tries, alongside Simon Russell Beale and Ben Whishaw to
unravel the meaning of the play and the reason why it is considered the
greatest play Shakespeare ever wrote
In Henry IV and
Henry V, Jeremy Irons (who is playing Henry IV in the new BBC films) uncovers
the extraordinary appeal of Shakespeare’s “History Plays”. He unravels the
differences between the real history and the drama that Shakespeare creates. He
discovers what William’s sources were – and how he distorts them! And he
invites us behind the scenes at the filming of some of the most important
scenes in the new films of all of these plays.
In The Tempest, the
legendary director Trevor Nunn, (who has directed 30 of Shakespeare’s 37 plays
and is determined to complete them all before he retires), takes us through the
magical and mysterious world created in Shakespeare’s last complete play. He
uncovers where Shakespeare got this material from and the strange personal
insights hidden within it. It is a truly experimental work but sadly perhaps it
is also Shakespeare’s farewell to the theatre. Within only a few years of
its completion he died.
The broadcast date for David Tennant's programme on Hamlet is not yet known
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