As You Like It
1978: Basil Coleman

This is the BBC Television Shakespeare version of the play. It is nearly complete and it also features some of the best production values represented anywhere in the series — still far short of a well-produced contemporary film, but eminently watchable. It is filmed largely outdoors, rather than on a soundstage, and the result is something more colored with realism than the typical element of this series of productions. The forests have real trees, the fires have real flames, and the shepherds have real sheep. The fact that this is all emerging in a place that is, to large measure, a kind of metaphorical place of otherness — a symbolic locus amoenus — only adds to the interest of the production.

All the parts are covered at least competently, and generally engagingly — both brothers, both dukes, the various pairs of lovers, etc., are quite good. There are a few standouts, however: the production features an extraordinary Jaques, and also the remarkable Helen Mirren in her prime, in the pivotal role of Rosalind. Her performance (like her Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream) is subtle, intelligent, and occasionally ambiguously menacing. Rosalind is offstage for much of the first part of the play, and the timing sags and lags a little when she’s out of view (except in the scenes involving Jaques); but the latter half of the play is energetic and completely involving.

Buy the complete BBC Shakespeare Plays at Amazon. Note that this will require a Region 2 player or a region-free player: it will not play on most normal American DVD players. Nevertheless, the price is so reasonable that even with a region-free player thrown into the deal, you’ll come out ahead.

Buy the BBC Shakespeare Plays Comedy Giftbox at Amazon. Unlike the complete series, this is in a North American video format, and it includes five plays: As You Like It, The Taming of the Shrew, The Tempest, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and The Merchant of Venice.

Buy the complete set of the BBC Shakespeare Plays or individual plays (including this one) in Region 1 format direct from Ambrose Video.