#Watch the hollow crown henry iv part 1 plus#

We need to be: there are the four three-and-a-half-hour wars of the roses plays (the three Henry VIs plus Richard III) to get into three two-hour televisions shows. Henry VI Part 1 itРІР‚в„ўs called, but actually that is dispatched within an hour: weРІР‚в„ўre well into ShakespeareРІР‚в„ўs Part 2 by the end of CookeРІР‚в„ўs Part 1.

Big chunks have been removed, Jack CadeРІР‚в„ўs rebellion gone, lines redistributed. We begin with a horseman galloping along AlbionРІР‚в„ўs white cliffs (to a modified quote stolen from another play altogether, Troilus and Cressida, you will have noticed, of course) now leaping over a bush of roses, both red and white: not the last we see of them, IРІР‚в„ўll bet РІР‚В¦Р”Р„nd that sets the tone: chopped and changed, galloping, leaping.

Taken the sword to it, thatРІР‚в„ўs what heРІР‚в„ўs done. And to see what director Dominic Cooke has done to bring a tricky work to an audience with a remote control in its hand. It will be interesting then РІР‚вЂњ Freud might agree РІР‚вЂњ to see how I get on with The Hollow Crown: Henry VI Part 1 (BBC2, Saturday). He РІР‚вЂњ I РІР‚вЂњ thought whatever was the late-70s equivalent of WTF, and from that moment on had a difficult relationship not just with the Bard but with the theatre itself, which has only recently shown some signs of improvement.

Hours and hours and hours of it, that will get him hooked. Throw him in at the deep end, they must have thought, with the least accessible РІР‚вЂњ some say least successful РІР‚вЂњ work. I was about 11, I think, when my grandparents took me to Stratford (-upon-Avon) to see ShakespeareРІР‚в„ўs Henry VI.