The BBC Television Shakespeare

The BBC Television Shakespeare

1978 · 1 season · 37 eps · ★ 6.0 · Drama, Comedy

Ended

The BBC Television Shakespeare is a series of British television adaptations of the plays of William Shakespeare, created by Cedric Messina and produced by BBC Television. It was transmitted in the UK from 3 December 1978 to 27 April 1985 and spanned seven series. Development of the series began in 1975 when Messina saw that Glamis Castle would make a perfect location for an adaptation of Shakespeare's play As You Like It. On returning to London, he envisioned an entire series devoted exclusively to the dramatic works of Shakespeare. After encountering numerous problems trying to produce the series, Messina eventually pitched the idea to the BBC’s departmental heads and the series was greenlighted. The series as a whole received generally negative reviews from critics.

Created by Cedric Messina

Your Rating

Where to Watch

Streaming

Cast

Jon Finch Henry Bolingbroke
Michael Hordern Prospero
David Gwillim King Henry the Fifth
Helen Mirren Rosalind
John Gielgud Chorus
Charles Gray Duke of York
Jeffrey Holland William
Richard Pasco Jacques
Derek Jacobi Hamlet
David Collings Cassius
Robert Brown Earl of Pembroke
Patrick Ryecart Romeo

More from Cedric MessinaSee all →

A Midsummer Night's Dream

A Midsummer Night's Dream · 1971

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Mistaken identity, unrequited love, and the supernatural are combined in Shakespeare's classic set in the woods of Greece on a moonlit night.

Peer Gynt

Peer Gynt · 1972

MovieDramaFantasy

The 1972 BBC adaptation of Ibsen’s epic dramatic fantasy about a man in search of his soul.

The Merchant of Venice

The Merchant of Venice · 1972

The Merchant of Venice

Maggie Smith, Frank Finlay and Charles Gray star in the adaptation of William Shakespeare's classic play. The Venice Titian and the Belmont of Botticelli serve as the visual inspiration behind this lavish production.

Henry IV Part 2

Henry IV Part 2 · 1979

Henry IV Part 2

MovieDramaHistory

The death of King Henry the Fourth and the coronation of King Henry the Fifth.

Chips with Everything

Chips with Everything · 1975

Chips with Everything

A group of Air Force conscripts begin eight weeks of 'square-bashing' - basic military drill. Two of the conscripts develop a friendship, Pip Thompson, a young aristocrat, and Chas Wingate, a working class boy. The military hierarchy want Pip to become an officer. He rebelliously refuses. The officers patiently tolerate his rebellion thus defusing it and breaking his spirit.

The Winslow Boy

The Winslow Boy · 1977

The Winslow Boy

The term at Osborne Naval College is not yet over. Why, therefore, has cadet Ronnie Winslow returned home? And why, moreover, is he hiding in the garden in the rain?

Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet · 1978

Romeo and Juliet

MovieDramaRomance

Two households, both alike in dignity, in fair Verona where we lay our scene, from ancient grudge break to new mutiny where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. From forth the fatal loins of these two foes a pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life whose misadventur'd piteous overthrows doth with their death bury their parents' strife.

Robinson Crusoe

Robinson Crusoe · 1974

Robinson Crusoe

A man struggles to survive after being shipwrecked on a deserted island.

Spider's Web

Spider's Web · 1982

MovieMysteryCrime

Clarissa, the wife of a Foreign Office diplomat, is given to daydreaming. 'Supposing I were to come down one morning and find a dead body in the library, what should I do?' she muses. Clarissa has her chance to find out when she discovers a body in the drawing-room of her house in Kent.

Henry IV Part 1

Henry IV Part 1 · 1979

Henry IV Part 1

MovieDramaHistory

Henry Bolingbroke has now been crowned King of England, but faces a rebellion headed by the embittered Earl of Northumberland and his son (nicknamed 'Hotspur'). Henry's son Hal, the Prince of Wales, has thrown over life at court in favour of heavy drinking and petty theft in the company of a debauched elderly knight, Sir John Falstaff. Hal must extricate himself from some legal problems, regain his father's good opinions and help suppress the uprising.

Theatre 625

Theatre 625 · 1964

Theatre 625 is a British television drama anthology series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC2 from 1964 to 1968. It was one of the first regular programmes in the line-up of the channel, and the title referred to its production and transmission being in the higher-definition 625-line format, which only BBC2 used at the time.

French Without Tears

French Without Tears · 1976

French Without Tears

MovieDramaComedy

The romantic and comic adventures of a group of Englishmen in France, on a course to learn the language.

A Song At Twilight

A Song At Twilight · 1982

A Song At Twilight

MovieComedyTV Movie

Enormously successful writer Sir Hugo Latymer has a tryst with the past not altogether to his liking. This bittersweet comedy is the story of a cosmopolitan author caught in his declining years between two women, one being his wife of convenience for twenty years, the other, one of his former lovers.

The Cherry Orchard

The Cherry Orchard · 1971

The Cherry Orchard

Madame Ranevskaya is a spoiled, aging aristocratic lady who returns from a trip to Paris to face the loss of her magnificent Cherry Orchard estate after a default on the mortgage. In denial, she continues living in the past, deluding herself and her family, while the beautiful cherry trees are being axed down by the re-possessor Lopakhin, her former serf, who has his own agenda.

Playhouse

Playhouse · 1974

A one-hour anthology television series of one-off contemporary and classic dramas produced by the BBC.

BBC2 Play of the Week

BBC2 Play of the Week · 1977

BBC2 Play of the Week

SeriesDramaComedy

An anthology of plays and novels adapted into feature length TV movies, broadcast on BBC2 from September 1977 to April 1979.

More Like This

No Good Deed

No Good Deed · 2024

SeriesDramaComedy

The sale of Paul and Lydia's picture-perfect LA home forces them to face painful family secrets — and hide them from prying eyes and cutthroat buyers.

Ripping Yarns

Ripping Yarns · 1976

A British television comedy series, written by Michael Palin and Terry Jones of Monty Python fame. Following an initial pilot episode in January 1976, it ran for two subsequent series of five and three episodes in October 1977 and October 1979 respectively. Each episode had a different setting and characters, looking at a different aspect of British culture and parodying pre-World War II literature aimed at schoolboys.

Baby Reindeer

Baby Reindeer · 2024

When a struggling comedian shows one act of kindness to a vulnerable woman, it sparks a suffocating obsession which threatens to wreck both their lives.

How is it so far?

Your ratings make Midnight smarter