Shakespeare adaptations

[RumNotRun]

I loved King Lear with Sir Anthony Hopkins and was wondering if anyone had any recommendations of their favourite Shakespeare adaptation films or versions of the plays available to watch on TV. I have watched Macbeth by Joel Coen but wasn't a fan.

I love Shakespeare's plays and wants to watch more of them at home.

The history plays are superb

BBC iPlayer has some Lawrence Olivier, his Macbeth is fabulous and there's a young Maggie a Smith in one too.

National Theatre at Home is great £100 for a year pass or £10 for a single month, well worth it and has loads of Stage productions on there, I stream to my TV via a firestivk

Richard III with Ian McKellen, set in a pseudo Nazi society, it's brilliant.

Obviously the Baz Lurhmann Romeo and Juliet is fab, 10 Things I Hate about you is a retelling of the Taming of the Shrew, also good fun.

Is The Hollow Crown still available on iPlayer?

I think my favourite film Macbeth was a tv version from the early 80s with Jane Lapotaire and Nicol Williamson, but the slightly earlier Judi Dench/ Ian McKellen one is also good.

Branagh's Henry V is very good, if long, I think he did an Othello too where he was Iago.

I loved the Hollow Crown, not sure if it's still available though.

Also Branagh’s Henry V. Not so keen on his Hamlet. I like the Branagh/Emma Thompson/Denzel Washington/Kate Beckinsale Much Ado About Nothing.

There’s a slightly demented 1990s Midsummer Night’s Dream with Rupert Everett, Michelle Pfeiffer, Calista Flockhart, Kevin Kline, Stanley Tucci etc.

Olivier’s Henry V is one of the great films of all time, not just Shakespeare films. Walton’s music is wonderful ( of course the whole film was part of the War Effort and is a sort of code for Britain in WW2).

The Japanese version of King Lear : ‘Ran’ is weird but riveting.

The only issue I recall with the Much Ado, which was otherwise wonderful, was Keanu Reeves. Oh dear.

I think it's National Theatre who had a version of Twelfth Night with Tamsin Greig that I actually really enjoyed.

I also went through a phase as a teen of watching the 1993 Kenneth Branagh version of Much Ado About Nothing wayyyyy too much. But I still love it. 😁 He's done quite a few Shakespeare adaptations. Some I liked more than others but I think it's a matter of which plays you like more as to which ones you enjoy most there. I'm not as much a fan of the history plays as I am the comedies.I did have a lot of the ones that John Gielgud was in on video as a teen too though.

So many!

The Hollow Crown is excellent. Many filmed stage performances from the RSC and Globe... Ian McKellen's Richard III, Midsummer Night's Dream with Kevin Kline, going back a bit but Derek Jacobis Hamlet was very good (if very 70s), and I enjoyed Judi Dench's Lady Macbeth

Andrew Scott's more recent Hamlet was stupendous...If you can get hold of Jonathan Price's Merchant of Venice then you absolutely should, I saw it live at the Globe and he was brilliant

Tamsin Greig's Malvolio in Twelfth Night was much feted and but it's not one of my favourite plays which is perhaps why I didn't love it as much as others

Can't remember if you can get it or not but if you can then definitely the Donmar's all female shakespeare trilogy.

I also really enjoyed many of the Shakespeare Retold BBC series but haven't yet been able to get it on dvd so if you find if let me know!

And yes of course Baz Luhrmanns R+J

Is noone going to mention Gnomeo & Juliet?

Obviously apart from that I loved the Much Ado about Nothing with Emma Thompson and BL's Romeo+Juliet.
10 things I hate about you/taming of the shrew was a good shout too, I'd forgotten it was based on that.

I think it's National Theatre who had a version of Twelfth Night with Tamsin Greig that I actually really enjoyed.

Most of the Shakespeare I've seen in the last few years have been 'stage to screen', either NTL or RSC - that one was good. NT also did a fun Midsummers Night Dream with Gwendoline Christie.

In terms of live theatre, which I appreciate this thread isn't about The Chamberlains Men are a traditional Shakespeare troop, all male, all in traditional Tudor clothing and they are fantastic, they tour open Air theatre in the Summer and are really worth the money.

There's a version of Much Ado about nothing on YouTube in which David Tennant and Catherine Tate have a lot of fun

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLh1_OpNt5HhTCwPCdw0t-T6FxuWu4L1Ir

Yes, he does a lot of smouldering and gets an oily massage wearing leather breeches. While smouldering.😀

My favourite stage Much Ado of all time was an NT version with Simon Russell Beale and Zoe Wanamaker as Beatrice and Benedick, which was so good I went back to see it again the next night.

There was a lot of smouldering, granted. Not much of the old acting thing, but the smouldering was definitely there 🤣

Apparently there's a film version of the Twelfth Night i saw on stage a decade ago with Mark Rylance and Stephen Fry, it was great.

Wow, I wasn't expecting such a response! Thank you. Lots to be working through.

Have to add another vote for Brannagh's Henry V. For me, it was far better than the Olivier version, and is a favourite I have watched many times. If you can spot anything with Patrick Stewart, David Tennant, or even better both, go for it. Saw Stewart/Tennant live in Hamlet years ago, and it was totally spellbinding.

the all male Twelfth Night with Mark Rylance as Olivia can be found on youtube - its the best version of this play ive ever seen, and he is genuinely spectacular

I really enjoyed the 2015 version of Macbeth with Michael Fassbender.

The David Tennant version of Hamlet is on BBC Iplayer but sadly the Hollow Crown plays don't seem to be there.

When ever anyone talks about miscasting, I think of Keanu Reeves in leather trousers saying ‘It must not be denied I am a plain-dealing villain!’ as if he’s reading a slightly-confusing shopping list.

(Bless him. I will in fact forgive him anything for his Duke Caboom in Toy Story 4.)

I’d forgotten I saw that! It was very good. Set in 1980s Gibraltar, and the masked ball becomes a raucous hen party. Catherine Tate was excellent. I absolutely believed in her as the wisecracking type who uses humour to fend off other people. I hadn’t seen her act before.

Highly recommend NT At Home.

There's a great R+J on there, lots of backstage areas used and quite meta but once I got my head around what was happening I loved it. Jessie Buckley and Josh O'Connor.

Midsummer Night's Dream with Gwendoline Christie.

Much Ado set in an art deco hotel with Katherine Parkinson, I really enjoyed that one.

They have Ralph Fiennes' Macbeth but I also really enjoyed Chris Ecclestone's which I think is on YouTube.

The Hollow Crown (excellent BBC production of the history plays) are available but not for free.