An Age of Kings is the BBC’s compelling 15-part series from 1960 of William Shakespeare’s great national pageant of eight History plays. Watched by over three million viewers, it remains the most ambitious single Shakespeare project ever filmed for television. Hailed by the Guardian as ‘ambitious … exciting … a striking example of the creative use of television’, it was a powerful demonstration of the BBC’s unique strengths and abilities in a time when Britain’s public service broadcaster was not principally in the hunt for ratings.

Planned as the inaugural production in the newly-built BBC TV Centre, An Age of Kings was later broadcast live on Thursday evenings every fortnight from Riverside Studios in Hammersmith as the series wasn’t ready in time for the opening. For more than 50 years, this TV landmark has been entirely unavailable in Britain. Yet its drama of power politics, betrayals, deceptions and deadly rivalries is as alive as ever. So too is the beauty of some of Shakespeare’s greatest poetry and prose.

An Age of Kings features outstanding actors, including Robert Hardy, Eileen Atkins, Judi Dench, and Sean Connery, at the beginning of their highly successful careers. More than five decades after it was first seen, An Age of Kings is a vivid and vibrant drama, with an unparalleled clarity and immediacy, sense of scale and poetic depth. With 600 speaking parts and 30 weeks of rehearsal before filming, each episode cost £4000. The series was shot on only four cameras with a cyclorama used for the battle scenes and lots of smoke.

DVD extras: The Making of An Age of Kings features Tony Garnett (Cathy Come Home, Days of Hope) interviewed at Riverside Studios. Garnett recalls his experiences on this groundbreaking series and the challenges of making one of the most ambitious Shakespeare projects ever filmed. The 5 disc DVD pack also includes a 24-page booklet giving background information and critical writing about the production.

The DVD is available directly from Illuminations and online retailers.

For detailed information about each of the 15 episodes, visit the BUFVC’s Shakespeare database.