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
Episodes
More from Cedric MessinaSee all →
King Lear · 1975King Lear
★ 10.01975
MovieDrama
King Lear, old and tired, divides his kingdom among his daughters, giving great importance to their protestations of love for him. When Cordelia, youngest and most honest, refuses to idly flatter the old man in return for favor, he banishes her and turns for support to his remaining daughters. But Goneril and Regan have no love for him and instead plot to take all his power from him. In a parallel, Lear's loyal courtier Gloucester favors his illegitimate son Edmund after being told lies about his faithful son Edgar. Madness and tragedy befall both ill-starred fathers.
A Midsummer Night's Dream · 1971A Midsummer Night's Dream
★ 10.01971
Movie
Mistaken identity, unrequited love, and the supernatural are combined in Shakespeare's classic set in the woods of Greece on a moonlit night.
Pygmalion · 1973Pygmalion
★ 10.01973
Movie
When linguistics professor Henry Higgins boasts that he can pass off Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle as a princess with only six months' training, Colonel George Pickering takes him up on the bet. Eliza moves into Higgins's home and begins her rigorous training after the professor comes to a financial agreement with her dustman father, Alfred. But the plucky young woman is not the only one undergoing a transformation.
Peer Gynt · 1972Peer Gynt
★ 9.01972
MovieDramaFantasy
The 1972 BBC adaptation of Ibsen’s epic dramatic fantasy about a man in search of his soul.
Separate Tables · 1970Separate Tables
★ 9.01970
MovieRomanceDrama
A play by Terence Rattigan about the stories of several people staying at a seaside hotel in Bournemouth which features dining at "Separate Tables."
The Siege of Manchester · 1965The Siege of Manchester
★ 9.01965
MovieWarHistory
A German mercenary is hired to defend the small township of Manchester during the English Civil War.
The Merchant of Venice · 1972The Merchant of Venice
★ 8.51972
MovieDrama
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.
The Changeling · 1974The Changeling
★ 8.51974
MovieDramaTV Movie
Sexual passion breeds violence in the Thomas Middleton and William Rowley written tale of a beautiful woman who falls in love with a sea-captain. Filmed with lush production values and at a leisurely, very British pace, Helen Mirren is riveting as Beatrice-Joanna, a young lass already torn by love and commitment.Beatrice-Joanna (Helen Mirren) is betrothed to Lord Alonzo de Piraquo (Malcolm Reynolds) but is in love with Alsemero (Brian Cox). She hires her father's manservant, De Flores (Stanley Baker), to kill Alonzo but after he has done so, she realises De Flores wants her as a reward.The Changeling was an instalment of the BBC's Play of the Month series and is a production for television of a 1622 Jacobean tragedy of the same name, written by Thomas Middleton and William Rowley.
Richard II · 1978Richard II
★ 8.01978
MovieDramaHistory
Richard II, who ascended the throne as a child, is a regal and stately monarch. He believes he is the rightful ruler of England, ordained by God, yet he is a weak and ineffective king - wasteful in his spending habits, unwise in his choise of chansellors, and detached from his country and its people. When he seizes the land of his cousin Henry Bolingbroke, both the commoners and the barons decide that their king has gone too far...
Romeo and Juliet · 1978Romeo and Juliet
★ 7.61978
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.
Spider's Web · 1982Spider's Web
★ 7.21982
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.
Theatre 625 · 1964Theatre 625
★ 7.21964
SeriesDrama
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.
Robinson Crusoe · 1974Robinson Crusoe
★ 7.01974
Movie
A man struggles to survive after being shipwrecked on a deserted island.
The Wild Duck · 1971The Wild Duck
★ 7.01971
MovieDrama
A devestating, yet bracing look at a family whose proximity to each other belies the decay of their relationships, The Wild Duck is just as modern today as it was when first staged. When Gregors Werle comes to stay with the Ekdals, his idealist nature refuses to tolerate the dreamworld of lies the family is living. However, in his bid to force the Ekdals to see the truth, the skeletons he unearths destroy the family that he wanted to redeem.
A Song At Twilight · 1982A Song At Twilight
★ 7.01982
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 · 1971The Cherry Orchard
★ 7.01971
Movie
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.
More Like This
Modern Love · 2019Modern Love
★ 7.32019
SeriesComedy
An unlikely friendship. A lost love resurfaced. A marriage at its turning point. A date that might not have been a date. An unconventional new family. These are unique stories about the joys and tribulations of love, each inspired by true events.
I Am... · 2019I Am...
★ 5.62019
SeriesDramaDocumentary
Each hour-long film follows a different woman as they experience “moments that are emotionally raw, thought-provoking and utterly personal”.
O Auto da Compadecida · 1999O Auto da Compadecida
★ 9.01999
SeriesComedySci-Fi & Fantasy
The (mis)adventures of João Grilo and Chicó in Brazil's Northeastern region. The four-chapter miniseries original version of O Auto da Compadecida.
LazyTown · 2004LazyTown
★ 7.32004
SeriesComedy
A pink-haired girl named Stephanie moves to LazyTown with her uncle (the mayor of LazyTown), where she tries to teach its extremely lazy residents that physical activity is beneficial.
