British Universities Film & Video Council

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Quality of Mercy, The

Synopsis
Detective series. In this episode Lewis and Hathaway investigate the murder of a young actor during a preview of an open-air student production of The Merchant of Venice. A quotation from Hamlet is found by his side. There are brief rehearsal scenes ("Shylock - not too Jewish, when we’re doing ‘The Fiddler on the Roof’ we’ll let you know") and scenes from the play itself including Shylock’s ‘I am a Jew’ speech (III i), Portia’s ‘The Quality of mercy is not strained’ speech (IV i) and her song ‘Tell me where is fancy bred’ (III ii). A second murder is committed - this time a quotation from A Midsummer Night’s Dream is found by the body. Lewis proclaims ‘I’m getting sick of bloody Shakespeare’.
Series
Lewis
Language
English
Country
Great Britain
Medium
Television
Technical information
Colour / Sound
Transmission details
15 Mar 2009 at 20:00 (Channel: ITV1)
Duration
120 mins

Credits

Director
Billie Eltringham
Producer
Chris Hunt
Cinematographer
David Marsh
Writer
Alan Plater
Music
Barrington Pheloung
Cast
Geoff BretonJoe Myers (Shylock)
Tariq JordanBarham Rezvani (Antonio)
Abby FordIsabel Dawson (Portia)
Daisy LewisEmma Golding
Kevin WhatelyDI Lewis
Laurence FoxDS Hathaway

Additional Details

Production type
Television and Radio Drama
Historical period
Renaissance Italy
Plays
Merchant of Venice, The
Subjects
Drama
Keywords
Shakespeare, William (1564-1616); Rehearsals; Mystery; Open-air theatre; Student productions

Notes

History
Episode 2 (of 4) in series 3.

Production Company

Name

ITV Productions

Name

WGBH Boston

Archive

Name

BFI National Archive

Web
http://www.bfi.org.uk/archive-collections/searching-access-collections/research-viewing-services External site opens in new window
Phone
020 7255 1444
Fax
020 7436 0165
Address
21 Stephen Street
London
W1T 1LN
Name

Learning on Screen Off-Air Recording Back-up Service

Email
services@bufvc.ac.uk
Web
http://bufvc.ac.uk/tvandradio/offair External site opens in new window
Phone
020 7393 1514
Fax
020 7393 1555
Address
For Learning on Screen Members only
77 Wells Street
London
W1T 3QJ

Record Stats

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