In Search Of Shakespeare Details

Good Documentary, if a little too unquestioning...

This is a fine looking series from the BBC and is enthusiastically written and presented by Michael Woods. However, not all is well in Avon county...

Constructed as more of a layman's introduction to The Bard, the programme maker's seem unable to contruct a convincing portrait of the elusive Shakespeare. For all the historical weaving and supposing that Woods indulges in, I was left feeling none the wiser, as to the true character of Shakespeare, than when I first begun. (Obviously some would suggest merely reading his work - but there is a private man to be uncovered also; and in this task Woods sadly fails in any concrete measure.)

Nevertheless, this is an enjoyable 'romp' through the ages of Elizabethan Britain, even if it does sweep the whole 'Shakespeare authorship' question rather distastefully under the proverbial carpet.

Questions remain - amongst them, for instance, how did the apparently ill-educated William of Avon manage to produce such a staggeringly accomplished and learned body of work? There are many, many such loose, or disconneted, strands in the life of William Shakespeare yet you would be hard pressed to discover even a hint of nuance in Woods's celebratory series.

Yet still, this series is heartily recommended - for its charm and enthusiasm, if less so for it's mythic bardic obedience.

By the way, I meant to give this four out of five (rather than five). But if there were a three and a half option, that is what I would have chosen.

[Highly rated reviewer]

CD 2: A momentum end

Incredibely researched, this documentary about uncovering Shakespeare's private and public affairs is exhaustive to say the least; it's also insightful, genius and inspirational. Top marks to the makers for keeping Shakespeare alive again for the next generation, and packing it all in a marvellous two CD set that is wholly entertaining.