Hysteria 2

Alternative title: Shakespeare Sketch
Synopsis: Television charity variety show to support World Aids Day. The event was directed by Stephen Fry and directed for television by David G. Croft. Includes a sketch (c6 mins) in which Rowan Atkinson (in Blackadder costume but not named as such) gives advice to Shakespeare (Hugh Laurie) on the cuts required for Hamlet. An extract from the exchange is as follows:

Blackadder: Exactly. So that’s why I think we should trim some of the dead wood.

Shakespeare: Dead wood?

Blackadder: Yeah, you know: some of that stand-up stuff in the middle of the action.

Shakespeare: You mean the soliloquies?
Language: English
Country: Great Britain
Medium: Television
Technical information: Colour / Sound
Transmission details: 1 Dec 1989 (Channel: Channel Four)
Duration: 108 mins

Director

David G. Croft

Producer

Trevor Hopkins

Writer

Richard Curtis; Stephen Fry

Contributor

Stephen Fry

Cast

Hugh Laurie	William Shakespeare
Rowan Atkinson

Notes: The full script of the Shakespeare sketch can be read by visiting http://www.blackadderhall.com/specials/shakespeare_sketch.shtml. The sketch was available on a video called HYSTERIA 2- THE SECOND COMING currently deleted (2005).

SHAKESPEARE