Henry VIII
1979: Kevin Billington
This is the BBC Shakespeare Plays version of Henry VIII. There is a considerable range in the BBC Shakespeare productions, and some of them are pretty minimalistic. This one is not. For all that it is not one of Shakespeare’s best-known plays, it features a cascade of dazzling performances by the best actors of the day, and it is formidable. If you can only see one production of the play, see this one. It’s brilliant and beautiful.
The production is set in Tudor settings, not all of them clearly sound-stages, and the gritty reality of it carries a certain weight all its own. Beyond that is the fundamental seriousness of the play, and — irrespective of the impressive acting forces brought to bear on it — the fact that the play is presented almost (if not quite) uncut. Whereas in the other available version probably half the lines have gone missing, here you can follow through whole scenes, intact, getting Shakespeare’s lines as he intended them.
For me, among other things, this meant that the play was vastly more comprehensible than the other main contender (the Globe version). The continuity of plot actually lives in those lines that some directors decide to jettison. Here, speaking for myself as a bear of little brain, it all kind of makes sense. Pedestrian as such a desire may seem, it’s mine.
In addition, there is also the opportunity to see quite a few of the great Shakespeare actors of their age. Claire Bloom as the defeated Katherine of Aragon is magnificent — she carries herself with such dignity that even if you are rooting for team Bullen, you can’t help but admire her. Jeremy Kemp is Norfolk (Howard). and he does a fine job; David Rintoul, whose rendition of Fitzwilliam Darcy in a mostly-forgotten production of Pride and Prejudice seems to me the perfect one, plays the role of Abergavenny; Barbara Kellerman is young and beautiful and clearly unaware of the horrific maw into which she is leaping; some will remember her as Jadis from the BBC productions of some of the Narnia books a few years later. Ronald Pickup is serene and reserved as Cranmer, who penned most of the words of the Book of Common Prayer; John Rhys-Davies, known to Tolkien-movie fans as Gimli, and from his more memorable role in Raiders of the Lost Ark, is the generous and great-souled Capucius in but a single scene. Julian Glover (“You may begin your landing now, Lord Vader,” and “Germany has declared war on the Jones boys”) has his usual august self-possession. Two generations of Lloyd Packs are present; Michael Poole is superlative as the stymied and cornered beast that was Cardinal Wolsey; and finally the unnamed singer toward the end is played by one of the golden voices of her generation, Emma Kirkby.
All in all, this is a formidable production of a play that is otherwise easy to overlook. It is done with such panache and finesse that it deserves your serious attention.
Abergavenny: David Rintoul
Anne Bullen: Barbara Kellerman
Bishop of Lincoln: David Dodimead
Buckingham: Julian Glover
Capucius: John Rhys-Davies
Cardinal Campeius: Michael Poole
Cardinal Wolsey: Timothy West
Cranmer: Ronald Pickup
Crier: Michael Gaunt
Cromwell: John Rowe
Door-keeper: Brian Osborne
Dr. Butts: John Rogan
First Gentleman: John Cater
Gardiner: Peter Vaughan
Griffith: John Bailey
Henry Guildford: Adam Bareham
Henry VIII: John Stride
Katharine of Aragon: Claire Bloom
Lord Chamberlain: John Nettleton
Lord Chancellor: Jack May
Messenger: Michael Walker
Nicholas Vaux: Jack McKenzie
Norfolk: Jeremy Kemp
Old Lady: Sylvia Coleridge
Page to Gardiner: Timothy Barker
Patience: Sally Home
Prologue: Tony Church
Sandys: Charles Lloyd Pack
Sergeant-at-Arms: Alan Leith
Servant: Jeffrey Daunton
Singer: Emma Kirkby
Suffolk: Lewis Fiander
Surrey: Oliver Cotton
Surveyor: David Troughton
Thomas Lovell: Nigel Lambert
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 complete set of the BBC Shakespeare Plays or individual plays (including this one) in Region 1 format direct from Ambrose Video.