Learning on ScreenShakespeare live from Shepherd’s Bush, and from Stratford-upon-Avon
By 1958, when An Age of Kings was under discussion, it was clear that the Conservative government (which was to be re-elected the following year) was planning a new commission to consider the future of broadcasting. Central to this would be the terms under which the BBC would continue to receive its licence fee, and also the possible provision of a third television channel. The BBC desperately wanted to secure any new service — which it did in the wake of the Pilkington Report, eventually published in June 1962. BBC2, with an emphasis on the arts, on education and minority interests, was launched in 1964.
What better demonstration could there be of the BBC’s capacities than an ambitious series of Shakespeare dramas? Especially when it distinguished the Corporation from the downmarket ITV which, seemingly, would never mount such a venture. An Age of Kings was in part at least addressed to a narrow audience of opinion formers who would shape the Pilkington Report. It succeeded brilliantly, because the Corporation was widely praised by Pilkington while the programmes of the ITV companies were castigated.
Over the past three years I have been working with my colleague Dr Amanda Wrigley on the AHRC-funded research project Screen Plays. Our key focus is the creation of a database of information about all of the 3,000-plus British television productions of plays originally written for the theatre (see the previous Viewfinder article here) We are also engaged in developing critical approaches for and extending access to archival recordings of these plays, and the DVD release of An Age of Kings has been a productive partnership with Illuminations. To achieve this, we had to knock persistently on the doors of BBC Worldwide for more than two years. Illuminations also had to find a substantial advance payment, although everyone expects the release will cover its costs over three years. We hope, too, to follow An Age of Kings with further releases of classic stage plays.
The timing of the publication of An Age of Kings close to Richard II Live from Stratford-upon-Avon was coincidental. But the appearance of both allowed a close comparison of performance styles more than five decades apart. Taken together, the two productions demonstrated the myriad ways in which image and sound technologies have advanced since 1960. The RSC’s Richard II was broadcast from a theatre not a studio, and was shown to audiences watching collectively in cinemas rather than experiencing the drama with just their families at home. But the multi-camera techniques for exploring and enhancing the action were essentially the same, and both broadcasts were live, with all of the energy and jeopardy that this brings to a transmission. Both also took the play simultaneously to audiences across Britain, many of whom had never watched a Shakespeare play before. And both productions were, at heart, realisations by highly skilled actors and creative teams of some of the most beautiful English poetry ever written.
John Wyver
Screen Plays
http://screenplaystv.wordpress.com/
RSC Live from Stratford-upon-Avon
http://onscreen.rsc.org.uk/
Henry IV part one is broadcast on 14 May, and Henry IV, part two on 18 June
An Age of Kings can be purchased from Illuminations and from Moviemail, Amazon and other online retailers.
