The Complete Arkangel Shakespeare is a notable series of audio-drama presentations of 38 of William Shakespeare's 39 plays.
The Complete Arkangel Shakespeare is a notable series of audio drama presentations of 38 of William Shakespeare's 39 plays. [upper-alpha 1] The recordings were released from 1998 onwards, first on audio cassette and then later on CD.
The plays are unabridged and based on The Complete Pelican Shakespeare, published by Penguin Classics. The music for all the plays was written and produced by composer Dominique Le Gendre. [1] The production features nearly 400 actors, almost all past or present members of the Royal Shakespeare Company.
The Complete Arkangel Shakespeare won the 2004 Audie Award for "Best Audio Drama". [2]
The logo on the box cover features a figure of Shakespeare composed entirely from books, reminiscent of the Renaissance Italian painting The Librarian by Giuseppe Arcimboldo.
The project spanned five years and cost $3 million. The series represents the collective vision of four individuals: Tom Treadwell, a Shakespeare scholar; Bill Shepherd, a film producer; Clive Brill, producer and director at the BBC; and Dominique Le Gendre, a composer.
The Complete Arkangel Shakespeare was published by Audio Partners. [3]
The cast members of each play are listed below.
The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs over 1,000 staff and opens around 20 productions a year. The RSC plays regularly in London, Stratford-upon-Avon, and on tour across the UK and internationally.
The BBC Television Shakespeare is a series of British television adaptations of the plays of William Shakespeare, created by Cedric Messina and broadcast by BBC Television. Transmitted in the UK from 3 December 1978 to 27 April 1985, it spanned seven series and thirty-seven episodes.
In the First Folio, the plays of William Shakespeare were grouped into three categories: comedies, histories, and tragedies. The histories—along with those of contemporary Renaissance playwrights—help define the genre of history plays. The Shakespearean histories are biographies of English kings of the previous four centuries and include the standalones King John, Edward III and Henry VIII as well as a continuous sequence of eight plays. These last are considered to have been composed in two cycles. The so-called first tetralogy, apparently written in the early 1590s, covers the Wars of the Roses saga and includes Henry VI, Parts I, II & III and Richard III. The second tetralogy, finished in 1599 and including Richard II, Henry IV, Parts I & II and Henry V, is frequently called the Henriad after its protagonist Prince Hal, the future Henry V.
Julian Wyatt Glover is an English classical actor with many stage, television, and film roles since commencing his career in the 1950s. He is a recipient of the Laurence Olivier Award and has performed many times for the Royal Shakespeare Company.
David Troughton is an English actor. He is known for his Shakespearean roles on the British stage and for his many roles on British television, including Dr Bob Buzzard in A Very Peculiar Practice and Ricky Hanson in New Tricks.
Reilly, Ace of Spies is a 1983 British television programme dramatizing the life of Sidney Reilly, a Russian-born adventurer who became one of the greatest spies ever to work for the United Kingdom and the British Empire. Among his exploits, in the early 20th century, were the infiltration of the German General Staff in 1917 and a near-overthrow of the Bolsheviks in 1918. His reputation with women was as legendary as his genius for espionage.
The First Churchills is a BBC serial from 1969 about the life of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, and his wife, Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough. It stars John Neville as the duke and Susan Hampshire as the duchess, was written and produced by Donald Wilson, and was directed by David Giles. It is notable as being the first programme shown on PBS's long-running Masterpiece series in the United States. Wilson and Giles were fresh from their success in writing and directing The Forsyte Saga, which also starred Susan Hampshire and Margaret Tyzack.
King of Texas is a 2002 American Western television film based on William Shakespeare's King Lear and directed by Uli Edel.
Edward IV of England has been depicted in popular culture a number of times.
An Age of Kings is a fifteen-part serial adaptation of the eight sequential history plays of William Shakespeare, produced and broadcast in Britain by the BBC in 1960. The United States broadcast of the series the following year was hosted by University of Southern California professor Frank Baxter, who provided an introduction for each episode specifically tailored for the American audience. At the time, the show was the most ambitious Shakespearean television adaptation ever made, and was a critical and commercial success in both the UK and the US.
"Henry VI, Part 1" is first episode of the second series of the British television series The Hollow Crown, based on the plays Henry VI, Part 1 and Henry VI, Part 2 by William Shakespeare. The episode was produced by Rupert Ryle-Hodges and directed by Dominic Cooke, who also adapted the screenplay with Ben Power. It starred Tom Sturridge as Henry VI, Sophie Okonedo as Queen Margaret and Adrian Dunbar as Richard of York. The adaptation presents Henry VI in two parts, incorporating all three Henry VI plays. It was first broadcast on 7 May 2016 on BBC Two.
"Henry VI, Part 2" is second episode of the second series of the British television series The Hollow Crown, based on the plays Henry VI, Part 2 and Henry VI, Part 3 by William Shakespeare. It was directed by Dominic Cooke, who also adapted the screenplay with Ben Power. It starred Tom Sturridge as Henry VI, Sophie Okonedo as Queen Margaret and Benedict Cumberbatch as Richard. The adaptation presents Henry VI in two parts, incorporating all three Henry VI plays. It was first broadcast on 14 May 2016 on BBC Two.