The BBC Shakespeare Plays
Making the Televised Canon
By Susan Willis
362 pp., 6 x 9
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Paperback ISBN: 978-0-8078-4317-8
Published: October 2002
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Willis shows how the technical elements of television distinguish these productions from stage and film, and she explains how differences in transmission, tastes, educational efforts, and critical responses made the productions a different experience on each side of the Atlantic. She assesses the diversity of styles used by such directors as Jonathan Miller, Elijah Moshinsky, and Jane Howell, for after the early filmic bias toward the productions, directors experimented with unit or stylized sets, Renaissance space and lighting effects, and varieties of scenic realism as methods of embodying Shakespeare's plays for television.
The BBC Shakespeare Plays will give readers an accurate sense of television production, take Shakespeare buffs behind the scenes, and serve as an interpretive guide for teachers, thousands of whom have found the BBC productions to be vital classroom adjuncts in teaching Shakespeare.
About the Author
Susan Willis, associate professor of English at Auburn University at Montgomery, is also dramaturg for the Alabama Shakespeare Festival.
For more information about Susan Willis, visit
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Reviews
"An attractive resource for teachers and students of Shakespeare, as well as for general readers who, like millions of others, invited Shakespeare into their living rooms between 1978 and 1985. The fact is that the 37-play series, though unevenly received, has become canonical, and Susan Willis's research provides helpful and fascinating background."--Choice
"A solid overview of the BBC Shakespeare series with many insights along the way. The production diaries for Troilus and Errors make fascinating reading."--Alan Dessen, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill