Episode 3

Synopsis: Concluding episode in a three-part docuseries on the life and work of William Shakespeare, combining interviews with drama vignettes.

3. Shakespeare’s life and legacy is threatened when the Gunpowder Plot unearths a secret he has worked all his life to bury: his family are Catholics, traitors to the crown. When his daughter is implicated in the fallout, Shakespeare unleashes his most epic work to date: Macbeth, which appeals to the new monarch, King James I. As Shakespeare teeters towards death, he reflects on his successes and failures, questioning family, forgiveness and mortality as his work is at risk of being lost forever.

The series features interviews with Dame Judi Dench, Brian Cox, Adrian Lester, Lolita Chakrabarti, Helen Mirren, Martin Freeman and Jessie Buckley, alongside academics and writers James Shapiro, Ewan Fernie, Jeanette Winterson, Brenda Hale, The Baroness Hale of Richmond, Gordon Brown, Jeremy O’Harris and Professor Farah Karim-Cooper. The series is narrated by Juliet Stevenson.
Series: Shakespeare: Rise of a Genius
Language: English
Country: Great Britain
Medium: Television
Technical information: Colour / Sound
Subjects: Drama; History; Shakespeare
Keywords: biographies; Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)