SCREEN PLAYS
RSC
Bookshelf: The Wars of the Roses (1970) by John Barton with Peter Hall
In my earlier post about Michael Barry’s memoir From the Palace to the Grove which details his life in television from 1938 to 1952 I lamented that he did not twin this revealing volume with a personal account of his later career. That prompted me to pull from my shelf a handsome volume that, in part, is a commemoration of one of Barry’s greatest small-screen triumphs. The Wars of the Roses by John Barton with Peter Hall (and some assistance from William Shakespeare) was published by the British Broadcasting Corporation in 1970. That date is rather odd since it is the script of an adaptation of four of Shakespeare’s History plays that was first seen in Stratford-upon-Avon in August 1963 and then shown in three parts on BBC Television on 8, 15 and 22 April 1965. Continue reading
Julius Caesar (National Youth Theatre/BBC, 1964)
On Saturday the location filming of the RSC’s new production of Julius Caesar wrapped ten minutes ahead of schedule with every scene that we had hoped for in the (digital) can. I am producing this film with Illuminations for the BBC, and when it airs in the summer it will be the ninth full-length BBC production of Shakespeare’s play. An earlier post considered what we can know of the earliest, produced in 1938 by Dallas Bower and transmitted live, and now I intend to write about each of the six extant recordings. Today’s post is about a outside broadcast in 1964 from the Ashcroft Theatre, Croydon of the National Youth Theatre’s modern-dress Julius Caesar. Continue reading
Julius Caesar (Illuminations/RSC/BBC, 2012)
My interest in the history of stage plays on television is, in part, closely linked with my work as a producer – which is what I do when I am not working on the Screen Plays research project. With my company Illuminations and with numerous valued colleagues, since 1998 I have made four adaptations of Shakespeare stage productions for television (Richard II, Hamlet and two Macbeths). And now I am just about to embark on a fifth Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, produced like two of the earlier ones with the Royal Shakespeare Company and destined to be seen on BBCFour in the summer. Continue reading
SCREEN PLAYS 