An Age of Kings

An Age of Kings was a BBC TV series of eight Shakespeare plays broadcast in 1960. While you might think that would make it less ambitious than the later BBC series which adapted 37 of Shakespeare’s plays, what makes it much more ambitious is that this series was broadcast live.

The 15 episodes of the series broke seven of the eight plays into two parts each, with the remaining play (Henry vi part 1) being condensed down to a single episode – it was so much reduced, in fact, that it was little more than edited highlights, and one of my favourite characters, John Talbot, was missed out completely! Given the number of big battle scenes that would have needed to have been staged live, I can sort of understand them removing those, but it seems a shame to miss out Talbot "the scourge of France" when even The Hollow Crown managed to fit him in.

The cast is a mix of repertory actors filling several different roles across the plays and 'big names' brought in to play single parts – the biggest of these easily being Sean Connery, who appears in the first four episodes as Hotshpur, a relatively minor character in Richard ii but then the main antagonist of Henry iv part 1. He is killed off by Prince Hal, played by Robert Hardy, who would go on to be King Henry v and the main character for episodes five through to eight.

The three plays of Henry vi have so many characters in them that the repertory style suits them well – so much so that it would later be used again by the BBC in the 1980s when it made versions of the plays in full. Some of the actors in the company stand out because I recognise them from things they would go on to later in their careers, such as Jack "Theoden" May with his distinctive deep voice, Jerome "Stevens in The Green Death" Willis, and Julian "he chose… poorly" Glover. There is also a young Anthony Valentine, very early in his career, in small parts such as messengers.

The star roles in Henry vi belong to the titular king himself (Terry Scully) and his queen, Margaret, played by Mary "Number 2" Morris. As the three plays proceed towards their bloody end, one character emerges and comes to dominate the action – Richard, Duke of Gloucester, who goes on to be the main character of Richard iii.

History has known many great Richard iiis: Ian Holm, Ian McKellen, Ron Cook, Peter Cook, and many more (not all of them need be named Ian or surnamed Cook). In this series he is played by Paul Daneman, who was in Blakes 7 as Dr Bellfriar in Killer (I know... even I had to look that one up, mew). Supposedly Daneman was good friends with Paul Darrow, and warrants several mentions in You’re Him, Aren’t You?* Here he has a compelling presence as the scheming Richard, whose rise and fall are the focus of the last two episodes of the series. A particular highlight is the scene where Richard is visited by the ghosts of the characters he has murdered, with the apparitions superimposed on an extreme close up of Richard’s (upside down) face – an effective little bit of SFX, but all the more impressive for having been done live.

The series has a place in history for being one of the first dramas to have been broadcast from BBC Television Centre, whose studios opened partway through the run, as well as being an ambitious project in its own right. From the point of view of over 60 years later it is also a fascinating glimpse back to the way BBC drama was done in those long-lost days, much closer to theatre than to film, as well as seeing well-known actors (especially Connery, two years before he became James Bond) in contexts we might not be used to seeing them in.

More than that, the eight plays have been adapted really well to the form of a TV series. If (and this is a big 'if' I admit) they had not kept the Shakespearean dialogue, this would have been virtually indistinguishable from the best BBC studio-bound historical costume dramas, such as I Claudius or Fall of Eagles (both from over 10 years later). The plays also flow naturally from each one to the next when watched as a series, with only one exception – when Henry v dies off-screen between parts eight and nine, but even then the continuity of the remaining characters and their actors does a lot to smooth over this transition.

The BBC produced much more complete versions of all of these plays in the 1970s and ‘80s (including the full Talbot experience of Henry vi part 1), and these would be my 'go to' choice for any of the plays individually, but for watching the story of this period of history, from the reigns of Richard ii through to Richard iii as a continuous narrative, An Age of Kings is a more accessible alternative.

* I don’t know if Paul Darrow ever played Richard iii, but I imagine he would have been quite good at it.