King Lear

Alternative title: The Shakespeare Plays
Synopsis: Television production shot entirely in a studio with Michael Hordern in the title role.
Series: BBC Television Shakespeare
Language: English
Country: Great Britain; United States
Medium: Television
Technical information: Colour / Sound
Recording date: 26 Mar 1982
Transmission details: 19 Sep 1982 at 19:15 (Channel: BBC2)
Duration: 190 mins

Notes: The production is commercially available on DVD as part of the BBC TV SHAKESPEARE COLLECTION box set (see separate entry). The VHS version was deleted in March 2004 and was replaced from June 2004 by the DVD version.
History: The production is part of the fifth season (produced by: Jonathan Miller, Shaun Sutton). Recording took eight days.
Textual information: Between 1978 and 1986 the BBC published individual scripts of the series. Each volume of The BBC TV Shakespeare, ed. Peter Alexander et al. (London: British Broadcasting Corporation) contains the full text of the play (the Peter Alexander edition) with accompanying notes on the scene breaks and cuts made in the production, as well as a glossary. A general introduction to the play by series literary advisor John Wilders is followed by an essay on the production of the play by Henry Fenwick. This is based on interviews with actors, directors, and designers.
Reviews: Susan Willis, The BBC Shakespeare Plays: Making the Televised Canon (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1991).

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Notes: NB. From May 2017 programmes are no longer available to buy on BBC Store. From November 1st 2017 the store will close completely and programmes bought from BBC Store will no longer be available to watch. Customers who have bought items from BBC Store will be contacted by email and refunded for their purchases either by full cash refund or Amazon video vouchers.

Shakespeare, "King Lear". https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/shakespeare/search/index.php/title/11842 (Accessed 19 Sep 2024)

Michael Hordern	Lear
Brenda Blethyn	Cordelia
Norman Rodway	Earl of Gloucester
Frank Middlemas	Fool
Anton Lesser	Edgar, later disguised as Tom o’Bedlam
Adam Kurakin	Herald
David Weston	Duke of Burgundy
Fraser Wilson	Gentleman
George Howe	Doctor
Gillian Barge	Goneril
Harry Waters	King of France
Iain Armstrong	Gentleman
John Bird	Duke of Albany
John Dallimore	Gentleman
John Grillo	Oswald
John Shrapnel	Earl of Kent
Julian Curry	Duke of Cornwall
Ken Stott	Curan
Michael Kitchen	Edmund
Penelope Wilton	Regan
Peter Walmsley	Servant
Richard Albrecht	Officer
Stuart Blake	Servant
Tim Brown	Captain
Tony Sympson	Servant

SHAKESPEARE