Shakespeare Plays Available in Video Format
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All’s Well That Ends Well
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As You Like It
The Comedy of Errors
Coriolanus
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Henry IV, part 1
Henry IV, part 2
Henry V
Henry VI, part 1
Henry VI, part 2
Henry VI, part 3
Henry VIII
Julius Caesar
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Love’s Labour’s Lost
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Measure for Measure
The Merchant of Venice
The Merry Wives of Windsor
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Much Ado About Nothing
Othello
Pericles
Richard II
Richard III
Romeo and Juliet
The Taming of the Shrew
The Tempest
Timon of Athens
Titus Andronicus
Troilus and Cressida
Twelfth Night
Two Gentlemen of Verona
The Winter’s Tale
Shakespeareana

Available versions

1960: Michael Hayes

1979: David Giles

1991: John Caird

2010: Dominic Dromgoole

2012: Richard Eyre

2014: Gregory Doran


Adaptations

1965: Chimes at Midnight


Educational

2013: Shakespeare Uncovered (Season 1, Ep. 5)


Henry IV, Part 2
1979: David Giles

This is the continuation of the Henry IV, Part 1 in the BBC series (also 1979, David Giles); there is a continuity of players between the two, and most of what I have said about them there can be applied here as well. Perhaps more importantly, there is a continuity of vision between the two. Precisely how the two plays fit together is not wholly obvious, and that’s one of the problems with them. But each pair of productions must figure out how to manage the fusion. Giles’ approach here is to embrace the conflicts and confusions of the plays and their characters, and I think that is the most profitable and richest path to follow.

Here Gwillim’s Prince Hal and Jon Finch carry their roles and their relationship with considerable subtlety. The most interesting dramatic nexus of the play, arguably, is the scene near the end where Hal takes the crown for himself before the king is actually dead; the ensuing wrangling between the two of them is a study in dramatic ambiguity, leaving their respective motives open to a variety of possible constructions and interpretations. It also motivates Henry’s later eagerness to defend his name and title in Henry V.

The bit at the end where Hal finally cuts his ties with Falstaff (and the rest of his quondam rowdy companions) is likewise sharply played and powerfully convincing, motivating the reports about Falstaff’s death that crop up in his absence in Henry V. It is played without affected emotion, but not without a real sense of its melancholy.

Without further elaboration, I can say that this and its companion Part 1 are a sound base of interpretation by which to measure any other production of the Henry IV plays.


Bardolph: Gordon Gostelow

Davy: Raymond Platt

Doll Tearsheet: Frances Cuka

Earl of Northumberland: Bruce Purchase

Earl of Warwick: Rod Beacham

Earl of Westmoreland: David Buck

Fang: Frederick Proud

Francis Feeble: John Tordoff

Gower: Brian Poyser

Henry, Prince of Wales: David Gwillim

Justice Robert Shallow: Robert Eddison

Justice Silence: Leslie French

King Henry the Fourth: Jon Finch

Lady Northumberland: Jenny Laird

Lady Percy: Michele Dotrice

Lord Bardolph: John Humphry

Lord Chief Justice: Ralph Michael

Lord Hastings: Richard Bebb

Lord Mowbray: Michael Miller

Messenger: Colin Dunn

Mistress Quickly: Brenda Bruce

Morton: Carl Oatley

Page to Sir John Falstaff: John Fowler

Peter Bullcalf: Roger Elliott

Peto: Steven Beard

Pistol: Bryan Pringle

Poins: Jack Galloway

Prince Humphrey: Martin Neil

Prince John: Rob Edwards

Ralph Mouldy: Julian Battersby

Scroop: David Neal

Servant: Tim Brown

Simon Shadow: Roy Herrick

Sir John Colville: Salvin Stewart

Sir John Falstaff: Anthony Quayle

Thomas, Duke of Clarence: Roger Davenport

Thomas Wart: Alan Collins

Travers: David Strong