I enjoyed your video, as always, Mike! I always appreciate hearing your insights and opinions. I am looking forward to your future videos in this BBC Shakespeare retrospective. I don't remember ever seeing this 1979 BBC production of "Romeo and Juliet," so I can't really comment on it. But in general, I never hated the play, even when I was young. I have always enjoyed it well enough, whether reading or watching it. I have seen it on stage numerous times and also have seen Franco Zeffirelli's 1968 film. I'm sure I have seen other productions of the play on television, but I don't really remember them. Since I haven't seen this 1979 version, I also can't comment on Anthony Andrews' performance in it, but I do want to put in a good word for him. I like him as an actor. I wouldn't say he is a favorite of mine, but I have always enjoyed his performances, at least the ones I can remember offhand right now. The first time I saw him in anything probably was in the 1974 television miniseries "QB VII," but I don't particularly remember him from that. The first time I remember really knowing who he was was in the television series "Danger UXB" that was shown in the US in early 1981. I was sharing a house with two other women at that time, and there were certain shows we always watched together. That was one of them, and we all enjoyed it a lot. In 1982, he starred (along with Jane Seymour and Ian McKellen) in the TV movie "The Scarlet Pimpernel," and I really enjoyed that too, including his performance. I thought he also made a good murderer in the 1989 Columbo TV movie "Columbo Goes to the Guillotine." Those are the only performances by him that come to mind right now. (One more -- He also starred in the 1988 TV movie "The Woman He Loved," again with Jane Seymour, about Wallis Simpson and Edward VIII, but I don't remember much about it or what I thought of his performance.) So like I said, he's not a top favorite of mine, but I don't remember ever thinking that he was a bad actor at all. Just my two cents. 😄 (By the way, I have never seen "Brideshead Revisited." I have meant to, but never have.) I share your dislike of attempts to update these classic plays. I really do not enjoy those, with one exception. Years ago I saw a modernized version of "A Midsummer Night's Dream," adapted, staged, and performed by the drama students at a local college, and I thought it was great! Very clever, innovative, and fun.
Brideshead Revisited is great! One of the best things ever made for TV. Even Anthony Andrews is good in it! 😉 Oh, all right, he's...not bad in the Columbo episode.
I'm excited to see your takes on the other episodes! I dabbled in a lot of these old BBC Shakespeares when I was a college undergrad in the early 2010s. They are indeed refreshing in their traditionalism. I like the lack of whizz-bang editing and high concept production design. It makes them oddly soothing/meditative. (I feel this way about a lot of old-school BBC productions I've seen-- I really enjoy In the Shadow of the Tower and The Fall of Eagles from around the same period as well.) I wasn't fond of this Romeo and Juliet though. I wasn't keen on any of the performances back then, save for Alan Rickman's... but then again, I saw this exactly ten years ago, so a rewatch could change my mind. There's quite a gulf between one's taste at 21 and 31. I love the play a lot-- it's probably in my top ten favorite Shakespeare plays at least. Like you said, it's more about the contrast between youthful ideals and cynical age. The older I get, the more poignant that juxtaposition becomes. I'm also grateful to this play for being my gateway to Shakespeare. I didn't like it when it was assigned reading in high school, but I was compelled to reread it on my own a year after and the beauty of the verse really hit me. Maybe it was because I wasn't being forced to read it that time, but I was able to realize the verse was not an impediment to my enjoyment, but the major cause of it. I've been guilty of bardolatry ever since.
I fell in love with Shakey in high school when I was about 17, and then I did a full year's module on him at uni. I hadn't watched or read him for a while before watching this BBC production, so that might be the reason for my fulsome praise! It was like coming back to an old friend.
You are so right about youth and Romero And Juliet, because I never cared that much for it, when I was in high school. Maybe I should rediscover it one day. I have never seen this version, but enjoyed your take on it and your sense of humor is always great.
I think this series or part of it aired on American public television, and I remember some of 'Julius Caesar' and 'The Tempest', finding the production of the latter unaccountably a bit dull. I also recall my sister disliking what was made of 'The Taming of the Shrew', perhaps her favorite Shakespeare play, thinking that an overly modern feminist perspective on Katherine's situation diminished the zest and earthiness of the comedy. Incidentally, I too am skeptical of contemporary attempts to make the classics somehow more "relevant" by updating them. My sister some years ago tried to turn me on to the limited series of 'ShakespeaRe-told', wherein four plays are transposed to our modern world, and the verse of the originals is rendered into prosaic dialogue, mitigating, as you say, the very heart and beauty of the poet's drama. She showed me 'The Taming of the Shrew', starring Shirley Henderson and Rufus Sewell, and I just didn't see much point in the enterprise without the magic of Shakespeare's original language.
Exactly. And it perpetuates the misunderstanding and lack of appreciation for Shakespeare that I find a lot in younger friends and acquaintances. The story and the narrative twists and turns are the framework for the verse, not the other way around.
I enjoyed your video, as always, Mike! I always appreciate hearing your insights and opinions. I am looking forward to your future videos in this BBC Shakespeare retrospective. I don't remember ever seeing this 1979 BBC production of "Romeo and Juliet," so I can't really comment on it. But in general, I never hated the play, even when I was young. I have always enjoyed it well enough, whether reading or watching it. I have seen it on stage numerous times and also have seen Franco Zeffirelli's 1968 film. I'm sure I have seen other productions of the play on television, but I don't really remember them.
Since I haven't seen this 1979 version, I also can't comment on Anthony Andrews' performance in it, but I do want to put in a good word for him. I like him as an actor. I wouldn't say he is a favorite of mine, but I have always enjoyed his performances, at least the ones I can remember offhand right now. The first time I saw him in anything probably was in the 1974 television miniseries "QB VII," but I don't particularly remember him from that. The first time I remember really knowing who he was was in the television series "Danger UXB" that was shown in the US in early 1981. I was sharing a house with two other women at that time, and there were certain shows we always watched together. That was one of them, and we all enjoyed it a lot. In 1982, he starred (along with Jane Seymour and Ian McKellen) in the TV movie "The Scarlet Pimpernel," and I really enjoyed that too, including his performance. I thought he also made a good murderer in the 1989 Columbo TV movie "Columbo Goes to the Guillotine." Those are the only performances by him that come to mind right now. (One more -- He also starred in the 1988 TV movie "The Woman He Loved," again with Jane Seymour, about Wallis Simpson and Edward VIII, but I don't remember much about it or what I thought of his performance.) So like I said, he's not a top favorite of mine, but I don't remember ever thinking that he was a bad actor at all. Just my two cents. 😄 (By the way, I have never seen "Brideshead Revisited." I have meant to, but never have.)
I share your dislike of attempts to update these classic plays. I really do not enjoy those, with one exception. Years ago I saw a modernized version of "A Midsummer Night's Dream," adapted, staged, and performed by the drama students at a local college, and I thought it was great! Very clever, innovative, and fun.
Brideshead Revisited is great! One of the best things ever made for TV. Even Anthony Andrews is good in it! 😉 Oh, all right, he's...not bad in the Columbo episode.
@@michaelbartlettfilm The phrase "damning with faint praise" comes to mind when I read your reply. 😆
I'm excited to see your takes on the other episodes! I dabbled in a lot of these old BBC Shakespeares when I was a college undergrad in the early 2010s. They are indeed refreshing in their traditionalism. I like the lack of whizz-bang editing and high concept production design. It makes them oddly soothing/meditative. (I feel this way about a lot of old-school BBC productions I've seen-- I really enjoy In the Shadow of the Tower and The Fall of Eagles from around the same period as well.) I wasn't fond of this Romeo and Juliet though. I wasn't keen on any of the performances back then, save for Alan Rickman's... but then again, I saw this exactly ten years ago, so a rewatch could change my mind. There's quite a gulf between one's taste at 21 and 31.
I love the play a lot-- it's probably in my top ten favorite Shakespeare plays at least. Like you said, it's more about the contrast between youthful ideals and cynical age. The older I get, the more poignant that juxtaposition becomes.
I'm also grateful to this play for being my gateway to Shakespeare. I didn't like it when it was assigned reading in high school, but I was compelled to reread it on my own a year after and the beauty of the verse really hit me. Maybe it was because I wasn't being forced to read it that time, but I was able to realize the verse was not an impediment to my enjoyment, but the major cause of it. I've been guilty of bardolatry ever since.
I fell in love with Shakey in high school when I was about 17, and then I did a full year's module on him at uni. I hadn't watched or read him for a while before watching this BBC production, so that might be the reason for my fulsome praise! It was like coming back to an old friend.
You are so right about youth and Romero And Juliet, because I never cared that much for it, when I was in high school. Maybe I should rediscover it one day. I have never seen this version, but enjoyed your take on it and your sense of humor is always great.
Thanks, mate! (Judging from the amount of comments, most people felt the same way as we did at school about Romeo and Juliet!)
This would be an exciting project. I have seen a few parts here or there, but never straight through.
Thanks, Steve. (If it picks up more views, I'll keep going with it. Looks like it's struggling at the mo...)
I think this series or part of it aired on American public television, and I remember some of 'Julius Caesar' and 'The Tempest', finding the production of the latter unaccountably a bit dull. I also recall my sister disliking what was made of 'The Taming of the Shrew', perhaps her favorite Shakespeare play, thinking that an overly modern feminist perspective on Katherine's situation diminished the zest and earthiness of the comedy.
Incidentally, I too am skeptical of contemporary attempts to make the classics somehow more "relevant" by updating them. My sister some years ago tried to turn me on to the limited series of 'ShakespeaRe-told', wherein four plays are transposed to our modern world, and the verse of the originals is rendered into prosaic dialogue, mitigating, as you say, the very heart and beauty of the poet's drama. She showed me 'The Taming of the Shrew', starring Shirley Henderson and Rufus Sewell, and I just didn't see much point in the enterprise without the magic of Shakespeare's original language.
Exactly. And it perpetuates the misunderstanding and lack of appreciation for Shakespeare that I find a lot in younger friends and acquaintances. The story and the narrative twists and turns are the framework for the verse, not the other way around.