MargoMusing

Last Saturday evening, the BBC broadcast the 3rd in the current series of The Hollow Crown, Richard III.

It features Benedict Cumberbatch as the scheming, murderous monarch, Judi Dench as his mother, the Duchess of York, and Sophie Okonedo as Margaret of Anjou, widow of Henry VI.

The play follows on from the 2 previous episodes (compressed from the 3 Henry VI plays) and it helps to have watched the earlier ones to build up an understanding of the background, the characters, and their relationships, but this is the big one, where Richard III comes into his wicked, murderous own.

It's a very good adaptation. Cumberbatch revels in the role, particularly his soliloquies, spoken directly to the camera, drawing us in to his plots.

Between times, he spends a lot of time brooding over a chess board, drumming his fingers, never satisfied or safe.

They play is, of course, pretty bleak, but there are nevertheless moments of humour - the scene in which the Mayor of London and others arrive to 'persuade' Richard to take the throne is very funny.

The final showdown, at the Battle of Bosworth Field, is as grim as it comes, with endless acres of blood and rain and mud.

Richmond (Luke Treadaway) naturally turns up, looking impossibly clean-cut and noble, and, inevitably, defeats Richard.

This is, of course, entirely consistent with Shakespeare's play, if not with history (the victory is true, of course. The nobility, less so)

It's well worth seeing.

So, 4 years after the BBC's first 'Hollow Crown' series, comprising Richard II, Henry IV Pts 1 and 2, and Henry V, they have finally completed, and are showing, the second series, which will, over three 2 hour films, cover Henry VI parts 1-3, and Richard III.

I've been looking forward to this, as the first set were so good, and of course there are lots of good actors involved (Judi Dench, for example, Sophie Okenedo, and of course Benedict Cumberbatch as the dastardly Richard III, but Ben and Judi haven't shown up yet...)

I have seen the plays before - the Globe Theatre did all 3 parts of Henry VI in 2013, and I saw them on tour (ad blogged about it here), and they are not, in my view, Shakespeare's best work, but so far I am enjoying what  Dominic Cooke is doing with them. The three plays are compressed into 2, 2 hour episodes, so a good deal is cut,and there are some changes -  but what is left works well.

In this first episode, we have already had the rise and fall of Joan of Arc (Laura Frances-Morgan), the nobilty of England picking roses to declare which side of the coming they will be on, and Richard of York (not that one. his father) putting himself forward as the rightful King (which of course, arguably he was, what with that Bolingbroke having usurped the crown rather than waiting for his older cousin to do so. . .)

Sophie Okonedo is superb as Queen Margaret, I'm looking forward to seeing more of her, and Tom Sturridge, is wonderfully ineffectual as King Henry VI.

I can't wait for the next  episode! This is why I love the BBC!