“Light thickens. Where did that come from?” As Brian Blessed reddens with delight, enthusing to Stephen Fry, I fret about his blood pressure.”The Blue Planet has it’s author and it is Shakespeare: WILLIAM Shakespeare!!!” (The debate on how many apostrophes words spoken by Brain Blessed demand has yet to be settled, so I have erred on the side of economy.)
Later (it may have been earlier: I watch television in BT Vision time, a throwback to the days when we were banned from watching adverts), Jonathan Ross broke from his interview with Michael Sheen (soon to play Hamlet) to ask Noel Gallagher, “You’ve seen Hamlet. Did you enjoy it?”
“Enjoy it? It was four and a half hours long!”
I’m afraid this, too, was my problem when I saw Dame Judi Dench and Anthony Hopkins play Anthony and Cleopatra. Although my brain insisted that I was privileged to be watching two of the greatest actors of our time speak some of the most influential English ever written, I am ashamed to say my backside spoke louder. It said, “Get me off this hard wooden bench and find the nearest bar.”
Josie Rourke’s 80’s styled production of Much Ado About Nothing with David Tennant (aviator glasses, superman t-shirt) and Catherine Tate (award for bravery for the scene when she was hoisted into the air and her underwear malfunctioned), that was sheer magic…
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