Hamlet

Alternative title: The Shakespeare Plays
Synopsis: Television production shot entirely in a studio with Derek Jacobi as Hamlet and Claire Bloom as Gertrude.
Series: BBC Television Shakespeare
Language: English
Country: Great Britain; United States
Medium: Television
Technical information: Colour / Sound
Recording date: 31 Jan 1980
Transmission details: 25 May 1980 at 19:15 (Channel: BBC2)
Duration: 230 mins

Director

Rodney Bennett

Producer

Cedric Messina

Writer

William Shakespeare

Music

David Lloyd-Jones; Dudley Simpson

Costume

Barbara Kronig

Art Direction

Don Homfray

Contributor

Alan Shallcross

Cast

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 The VHS version was deleted in March 2004 and has been replaced by the DVD version.
General: 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.
History: The production was recorded in nine days and broadcast separately between the second and third series. It was the last production supervised by the BBC TV Shakespeare project’s originator, Cedric Messina.
Textual information: Although some 500 lines had to be cut, according to Michael Brook (screenonline), it was still the longest Hamlet the BBC had ever broadcast.
Reviews: Michael Brook, "Hamlet, Prince of Denmark 1980)", http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/527101/index.html
Susan Willis, The BBC Shakespeare Plays: Making the Televised Canon (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1991).

Name: BBC Store
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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, "Hamlet". https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/shakespeare/search/index.php/title/9198 (Accessed 25 Nov 2024)

SHAKESPEARE