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Lear BBC 2- anyone watching?

28 replies

QueenoftheNights · 28/05/2018 22:38

what do you think? I'm finding the quality of the speech (sound) a bit hard going- it's bit muffled at times, or garbled and AH is a bit shouty.

Lear's always hard- so many interpretations on stage and screen.

Not sure about modern dress but again, that's often par for the course nowadays.

Anyone?

OP posts:
NorthernLurker · 28/05/2018 22:53

I like the setting, love the daughters, think Kent and Gloucester are marvellous but not enjoying Lear, AH isn’t as clear as he should be. Also what the heck is going on with the casting of the black characters? The one an outsider, the other the bastard Villian? Hmmm

Christopher Eccleston was good though.

NorthernLurker · 28/05/2018 22:54

Villain!

NorthernLurker · 28/05/2018 22:56

I thought the blinding was well done.

kitnkaboodle · 28/05/2018 23:05

I'm loving it - the setting, the sisters (and I normally hate ET). Like AH and his Welsh accent. Edgar annoying, but always is. What happened to the fool? Thought he had a bigger part

NorthernLurker · 28/05/2018 23:10

One of the challenges of staging Lear is when to kill off the fool. Some productions have had Cordelia play him too as they never appear on stage together. I think it's a thankless part tbh.

NorthernLurker · 28/05/2018 23:29

Speaking of thankless parts Edgar is a pig to play. I think Andrew Scott was a bit too histrionic tbh. But it's a fine line to tread

SuburbanRhonda · 28/05/2018 23:32

I’ve so completely gone off Anthony Hopkins recently that I just didn’t think I could bear to watch it.

myrtleWilson · 28/05/2018 23:37

ooh - not watching tonight but will do on iPlayer (I was sad enough to tweet to check if it was going to be on) I saw a trailer and thought AH was quite difficult to hear so..... (as an aside am hoping Andrew Scott is awesome - my DD loves him in Sherlock and Pride and DH and I watched the recent BBC screening of his Hamlet - which was phenomenal imo..)

NorthernLurker · 28/05/2018 23:45

The end was quite good. Satisfactory pile of bodies and Jim Carter very good.

I'd forgotten how suddenly they all get killed off. Starts with Cornwall, he's there one minute, gone the next, then Regan and Goneril too.
I did Lear for a level. Satisfying that after 23 years I can still finish the lines though. Guess it's buried deep in my brain!

kitnkaboodle · 28/05/2018 23:50

don't think i've ever seen it on tv before. How much was cut?? About half an hour? Edgar and Fool parts seemed truncated to me ... daughters best thing in it, I think. Edmund ok. Christopher ecclestone wasted...

MrsFring · 28/05/2018 23:50

I thought AH wasn't nuanced enough for such a demanding part, I'm usually sniffling by the end of Lear but not this time. Jim Broadbent had so much pathos in his performance, really upset me.

NorthernLurker · 29/05/2018 00:12

I think a lot was cut. It's a very, very long play if not. Some storm stuff and Edgar stuff cut I think? Also I thought Goneril and Regan had more with Edmund.

mommybunny · 29/05/2018 08:21

As someone with a reasonable education who is somewhat ashamed that in 51 years she had never seen or read King Lear, I think I got most of the gist but I’m sure I missed some bits. I will admit I watched it for the cast (which really was wow!) and by and large they didn’t disappoint.

My questions:
Did Edgar know he was looking after his father on the cliff and in the town centre? If he did I did not catch how he signalled that.

Conversely, did Gloucester recognise his son during the storm?

When did the rivalry between Goneril and Regan over Edmund start?

Why did Cordelia hang herself?

When were Cordelia and Lear taken prisoner?

If Kent was so deep “in disguise”, how was it Cordelia recognised him?

Were these all points that were dealt with in he text but cut by the BBC, or did I just not catch them?

Original poster
QueenoftheNights · 29/05/2018 08:57

On stage it's about 3 hours so yes some of it was cut.

I think Lear is hard to play because the risk is the actor will rant and not get the pathos across - we are supposed to see him as vulnerable as well as mad.

mommy Edgar is supposed to know it's his father but his father is not supposed to know it's him until he recognises his voice (as he's blinded.)

Cordelia hangs herself- it's not clear why but we assume it's because she was rejected but it also means that Lear (too late) recognises his wrong doing and is the worst thing that could happen to him.

There is a certain poetic licence for characters recognising each other...remember this was the 17thC when it was played out on stage with minimal props so although they were in disguise, their voices would reveal their identity.

OP posts:
HappydaysArehere · 29/05/2018 09:35

I’ve got this recorded. Hope it is good as there is a gap in my Shakespeare knowledge. I have only seen bits of King Lear and was pleased that this was on. Sorry to read that AH wasn’t clear. I was depending on clarity to understand it.

Piggywaspushed · 29/05/2018 11:08

Cordelia doesn't hang herself in the play. I haven't watched far enough to know what happens in the adaptation. But in the play she is hanged (by Cornwall's people iirc)

I am finding Andrew Scott vvv annoying (but have never liked Edgar). My favourite line in Shakespeare is 'what need one?' as it is so nasty and it was underplayed. they are doing that Shakespeare rushing delivery thing and Goneril and Regan aren't nasty enough for my liking (yet).

I do like Cornwall though!

LostInLeics · 29/05/2018 11:15

From my memory of reading the play, I think Cordelia is hanged on Edmund's order, which he then tries to retract in his dying speech but by the time the messenger gets to her the order has already been carried out.

I haven't watched it yet, looking forward to catching up on iPlayer tonight.

AlbertaSimmons · 29/05/2018 11:20

Same here northernLurker, although my A level was many years before yours I think! I was surprised at how it licked along and liked the setting - very menacing. The blinding scene is horrific, always. I thought the casting was pretty good - I hadn't read much about it beforehand and although I knew it was AH as Lear, I hadn't realised just how starry the cast was. Very good.

biser · 29/05/2018 11:36

they are doing that Shakespeare rushing delivery thing

Yes. And shouting. And AH wasn't enunciating. All in all, the sound was terrible.

The BBC are quite often guilty of this. They set the sound in professional studios and forget that the rest of us are listening IRL with less-than-stellar equipment. John Humphreys on the radio enrages me - quite apart from the obvious reasons - because his long sentences get lower and lower and deeper and deeper in pitch. By the end my tinny little radio alarm hasn't got a clue what he is saying.

Piggywaspushed · 29/05/2018 11:41

Ah yes, Edmund , not Cornwall...

NorthernLurker · 29/05/2018 12:04

Victorian audiences didn’t like Losing Cordelia so she tended to survive! The actual text is that Edmund’s executioner hangs her then Lear kills the executioner. Lear then says over her body ‘my poor fool is dead’ which you can take several ways obviously. Who is the fool? His literal fool we saw, Cordelia or the foolish self of Lear who acted so unwisely and now he sees that?

I think the attraction between Edmund and the sisters just materialises. Its clear in the text not all is well in Gonerils marriage but Regan seems pretty keen on the sadistic Cornwall so no obvious explanation there. I think you have to take it as another example of the chaos Lear has introduced. Kings should not give up their power and the daughters of Kings, married to noble men, should not get the hots for the bastard in every sense they’ve only just met...

Lear and Cordelia were taken prisoner after her army is defeated by the British forces. I think the point about Cordelia recognising Kent is because she is the character who sees the truth therefore disguise doesn’t work against her. She sees through it. Which is another argument for the fool and Cordelia being the same person - because it’s the fool who also sees the truth and speaks it.

I did enjoy my a-level!

AlbertaSimmons · 29/05/2018 12:07

Reaching deep into memory, I think we were taught that "my poor fool is dead" refers to Cordelia.

CoolCarrie · 29/05/2018 12:19

I loved Tobias Menzies’s wink to Emily at the sharing out the kingdom scene.

Piggywaspushed · 29/05/2018 12:21

Yes, that was great. I do like him.

mommybunny · 29/05/2018 14:29

Let’s hope that wink was a foretaste of what he will be like as Prince Philip in The Crown!

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