Pericles
1984: David Hugh Jones

This is the BBC Shakespeare Plays entry into the field, and, like the rest of the series, it was made on a shoestring budget with some of the best acting talent in the business. The plays are seldom striking for their staging or their technical finesse (though there are a few that will surprise one), but they do prove the point that when one invests heavily in the Bard’s actual language and trusts in his stories, the end product will be surprisingly robust. This version is no exception.

Featuring Mike Gwilym, whose acting career was lamentably short, in the title role, this also brindgs into view a number of other excellent actors, including Edward Petherbridge (whom some may have encountered as Lord Peter Wimsey in some of the BBC renditions of Sayers’s later Lord Peter novels), Trevor Peacock (BBC Titus Andronicus and the dithery old fellow who can’t tell “no” from “yes” in The Vicar of Dibley), Patrick Ryecart (BBC’s Romeo and Juliet), and Juliet Stevenson (Emma, Nicholas Nickleby, and Bend it like Beckham) as Thaisa.

For good or ill (perhaps some of both) there are very few surprises here. That being said, it's a very solid rendition of the play, and worth watching.

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.