Learning on ScreenMuch Ado About Nothing
- Synopsis
- Televised adaptation based on a National Theatre stage production by Franco Zeffirelli, starring real-life married couple Maggie Smith and Robert Stephens as Beatrice and Benedick.
- Language
- English
- Country
- Great Britain
- Medium
- Television
- Recording date
- 11 Jan 1967
- Transmission details
- 5 Feb 1967 at 20:25 (Channel: BBC1)
- Duration
- 125 mins
Credits
- Director
- Alan Cooke
- Producer
- Cedric Messina; Robert Stephens
- Writer
- William Shakespeare
- Music
- Nino Rota
- Art Direction
- Mel Cornish
- Contributor
- Franco Zeffirelli; Robert Graves
- Cast
Additional Details
- Theatre
- Old Vic Theatre
- Theatre company
- National Theatre Company
- Production type
- Television and Radio Drama
- Historical period
- 19th Century
- Plays
- Much Ado About Nothing
- Subjects
- Drama
- Keywords
- Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)
Notes
- Notes
- The cast of 43 actors spent more than 3 weeks in rehearsal for the televised version, which was pre-recorded in the studio on January 11, 1967. Alan Cooke, who adapted the play for television, observes: "Paradoxically, one needed to change a great deal to make it come out the same [...]. The original was a very two-dimensional production; I tried on television to create the feeling of being among a performance going on" (qtd. in Bernard Adams, "Much Ado", Radio Times, 2 February 1967, p.11).
The Library of Congress copy is from a transmission on PBS. - General
- Future stars Michael Gambon and Christopher Timothy appear in minor roles.
The BFI’s Screenonline includes 12 minutes of clips available only to UK schools, higher education institutions and public libraries, though 8 production stills can be seen by all. Available at: http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/565168/index.html - History
- The National Theatre production of the play opened at the Old Vic , London, on February 16, 1965. The televised broadcast was transmitted in two parts with a ten-minute interval. The play was broadcast on PBS in the NET Playhouse series. To fit in with the show’s 90 minute slot it was shown in two parts - Part 1 (72min) March 11 1971, and Part 2 (59 min) March 18th.
- Stills
- A still of the production with Maggie Smith as Beatrice is reproduced in Radio Times, 2 February 1967, p.11.
- Reviews
- Zeffirelli’s conception of the play was irreverent enough to cause one of the major theatrical furores of 1965. The Times drama critic reported: "A nattily uniformed town band parades the streets blaring forth crudely harmonised marches: the troops swagger back from the war in dress swords and plumed pill-box hats and are mobbed by a welcoming crowd of frock-coated civilians. And as for civic statuary, Zeffirelli has provided it in the shape of self-assembling monuments - ethereal girls who drift on and freeze into Ondines at the base of a fountain, and an unearthly warrior who clambers on to a pedestal and takes up martial stance as a local hero covered in bird droppings." (" It All Ends on a Note of Magic", 17 February 1965). According to Variety Zeffirelli was unhappy with the programme and requested that his name be removed from it.
Production Company
- Name
BBC
- Notes
- The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
Archive
- Name
Library of Congress, Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division
- Web
- http://loc.gov/rr/record External site opens in new window
- Phone
- (202) 707-7833
- Address
- Recorded Sound Reference Centre
101 Independence Avenue, S.E.
Room LM-113
Washington, DC 20540
Record Stats
This record has been viewed 4095 times.
