Simon Schama's Shakespeare

Miniseries

2012 · 2 episodes · 2h 0m in all

Episodes

1. 

   1. This England

   22 Jun 2012 · 60 min

   Schama explores how, in his history plays, Shakespeare created a vision of England that still rings true today. Against the backdrop of the Reformation, Shakespeare began to dramatize English history and the English character in a new and unprecedented way. From his first blockbuster, Henry VI, he made sure that his England was not just a place where King and Queens strutted and preened, but where ordinary Englishmen and women took centre stage.

2. 

   2. Hollow Crowns

   29 Jun 2012 · 60 min

   Simon Schama explores Shakespeare’s attitude to the other great subject of his day - Kingship. He asks how far Shakespeare’s most profound tragedies, including Richard II, Hamlet, Macbeth and King Lear, were inspired by his own experience of writing for the courts of Elizabeth and James I.