The Taming of the Shrew
BBC gives Shakespeare a makeover in the UK
Indiantelevision.com Team
18 March 2005 6:00 pm
MUMBAI: This is an attempt by UK broadcaster BBC One to fulfill its committment to engage
and entertain the widest possible audience with Shakespeare's stories in new and original
ways. To this end BBC One has commenced production on four modern adaptations of
Shakespeare plays.
Shirley Henderson will play Kate opposite Rufus Sewell's Petruchio
in Sally Wainwright's version of The Taming of the Shrew.
In the new version the vitriolic, aggressive and shrewish, Kate is an opposition MP who is
instructed to find herself a husband to make her more electable. The romantic comedy
explores the complexities of relationships against a backdrop of glamorous London circles
and politics.
Much Ado About Nothing gets a makeover with a television flavour. Actress Sarah
Parish plays Beatrice, presenter of a popular early evening regional news show. Her
ex-lover and arch enemy Benedick, played by Damian Lewis, is hired as her co-anchor. One
of the Bards most famous tragedies Macbeth is transposed to the enclosed and heated
world of a top restaurant kitchen. BBC head of drama series and serials Laura Mackie says,
"There have been modern versions of Shakespeare before but these new interpretations
remain true to the originals. At the same time, they are unashamedly a very personal take
by each writer - our aspiration is that they work on their own terms for a modern
audience."
The BBC is also working with the Shakespeare Schools Festival on a celebration of
Shakespeare with a one-off festival night across the UK on 3 July. 10,000 children (aged
11-16) from 400 schools
will perform abridged plays in 100 theatres.
thanks, Rai!
BBC updates
Shakespeare
Owen Gibson, media correspondent
Tuesday March 15, 2005
The Guardian
The BBC is hoping to bring Shakespeare alive for a new generation after signing up a
string of well-known faces including Rufus Sewell, Stephen Tompkinson and
Billie Piper to star in a series of big-budget adaptations of the Bard's plays.
The hour-long dramas, which follow the successful template laid down by transplanting
Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales to the modern day, will be shown this autumn on BBC1 in
prime time as part of a Shakespeare season.
Following a plea from Michael Grade, the BBC's chairman, for more "ambition"
in BBC drama, and with an eye on the debate on the future of the licence fee, the
corporation hopes to focus attention on its reputation for high-quality original
productions rather than ratings winners such as Holby City.
The BBC is remaking The Taming of the Shrew, Macbeth, Much Ado About Nothing and A
Midsummer Night's Dream in its first Shakespeare adaptations for 15 years. If they are
successful more plays are likely to get the same treatment.
Sewell, who has just finished making The Legend of Zorro with Catherine
Zeta-Jones and Antonio Banderas, will star as Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew.
Shirley Henderson will play Kate, an opposition MP told to find herself a husband to make
herself more electable. Twiggy Lawson, the former model, and Tompkinson will also star.
Damian Lewis, the British actor who made his name in the Steven Spielberg mini-series
Band of Brothers, will play Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing as the anchor of an early
evening regional news show. His co-presenter, former lover and now arch-enemy, Beatrice,
will be played by Sarah Parish, who recently appeared in BBC1's Blackpool.
Billie Piper, who also appeared in one of the Canterbury Tales adaptations and later
this month will star as Doctor Who's sidekick, Rose, said last week that she had landed
the role of Hero in A Midsummer Night's Dream. The play, adapted by the screenwriter Peter
Bowker, will be set in a holiday park.
James McAvoy, who most recently starred in the Channel 4 comedy drama Shameless, will
play Joe Macbeth, an award winning chef, in a version of the play transported from the
Scottish Highlands to a high pressure kitchen. Keeley Hawes, star of the BBC1 spy drama
Spooks, will play Ella Macbeth.
Shakespeare's plays have been regularly transplanted to modern settings on stage and
screen, with mixed results. Baz Luhrmann's 1996 Hollywood version of Romeo and Juliet,
starring Leonardo DiCaprio, was credited with enthusing cinemagoers about Shakespeare and
more recently Levi's used dialogue from A Midsummer Night's Dream in a TV ad campaign.
Laura Mackie, the head of the BBC's drama series, said: "There have been modern
versions of Shakespeare before but these new interpretations remain true to the originals.
"At the same time, they are a very personal take by each writer - our aspiration is
that they work on their own terms for a modern audience."
The adaptations will accompany a Shakespeare season across the BBC's TV channels, radio
stations and websites.
They will also link up with the Shakespeare Schools Festival to organise a one-off
event on the evening of July 3, when 400 schools will perform abridged versions of the
plays in 100 theatres around the country.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1437845,00.html
thanks, Rai!!
BBC to screen modern Shakespeare
BBC News/Entertainment
Tuesday, March 15, 2005
Rufus Sewell
Rufus Sewell starred in Charles II: The Power and The Passion
The BBC is to film four contemporary adaptations of Shakespeare plays, to be
screened this autumn.
A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Taming of the Shrew, Macbeth and Much Ado About
Nothing are the four which will be given a modern makeover.
A number of well-known actors, including Keeley Hawes, Shirley Henderson and Rufus Sewell
have signed up to star in them.
The dramas will be part of a season of programmes about the bard.
Holiday Park
The new versions will see The Taming Of The Shrew set in the world of politics and A
Midsummer Night's Dream being played out in a holiday park.
Macbeth will be transferred to a restaurant kitchen, while Much Ado About Nothing will
focus on two rival news readers.
"There have been modern versions of Shakespeare before but these new interpretations
remain true to the originals," said Laura Mackie, BBC Head of drama series and
serials.
"At the same time, they are unashamedly a very personal take by each writer - our
aspiration is that they work on their own terms for a modern audience."
The Shakespeare adaptations follow on from the modern-day adaptations of Chaucer's The
Canterbury Tales, which were screened on BBC One in 2003.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/4351249.stm
March 15 2005
BBC1 returns to the Bard
Following where The Canterbury Tales left off, BBC1 is now lining up four new big-budget
contemporary adaptations of the Bard for this autumn, its first Shakespearean dramas for
over 15 years.
"There have been modern versions of Shakespeare before but these new interpretations
remain true to the originals," said BBC head of drama series and serials, Laura
Mackie. "At the same time, they are unashamedly a very personal take by each writer -
our aspiration is that they work on their own terms for a modern audience."
All in-house BBC Drama productions, the foursome includes Sally Wainwright's version of
The Taming of the Shrew, starring Shirley Henderson
as somewhat Machiavellian MP and Rufus Sewell
as her husband. David Richards (Conviction, Reckless) directs.
In David Nicholls' Much Ado About Nothing, Sarah Parish stars as the presenter of a
regional news show whose ex-lover and arch enemy, played by Damian Lewis (Band of
Brothers), is hired as her co-anchor. Brian Percival directs.
Peter Moffat has transported Macbeth to the claustrophobic world of a top restaurant
kitchen, with James McAvoy and Keeley Hawes starring; while Peter Bowker has set A
Midsummer Night's Dream during a weekend in a holiday park. Mark Brozel will direct
Macbeth, Ed Fraiman will direct Dream.
The four films will be "the centrepiece of a commitment across the BBC this autumn to
engage and entertain the widest possible audience with Shakespeare's stories in new and
original ways," said the broadcaster, no doubt hoping the high brow classics will
ease perpetual sniping about the Corporation chasing ratings.
With further Shakespearean adaptations in the pipeline if these first four prove
successful, BBC1 also today unveiled a summer season dedicated to Africa. New programmes
like Geldof on Africa and The Girl In The Café will sit alongside themed versions of
existing shows like Ground Force and Strictly African Dancing.
15 Mar 2005
© C21 Media 2005
http://www.c21media.net/news/detail.asp?area=1&article=23932
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