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The BBC has revisited four Shakespeare plays and set them in modern times.
Much Ado About Nothing is set in a TV studio. Beatrice (Sarah Parish) and Benedick (Damian Lewis) are hosting a local news show. The two of them are fighting, hating and teasing each other non-stop. Meanwhile the pretty weather girl Hero (Billie Piper) is preparing for her wedding to Claude. It all goes wrong at first, only to turn out just right in the end.
The setting works really well in this story. Beatrice and Benedick are great leading characters, the story of Hero and Claude doesn’t really work though.
Macbeth doesn’t translate well into this setting. Joe Macbeth (James McAvoy) is the head chef of a kitchen and is working hard to make Duncan Docherty’s restaurant a success. Ella Macbeth (Keeley Hawes) is persuading Joe to kill Duncan to take over the restaurant. Although James McAvoy is absolutely great, this episode did not impress me. I didn’t like the performance of the actress who played Ella Macbeth and lost interest somewhere in the middle of the episode even though the original Macbeth is one of my favourite Shakespeare plays. What I really liked about it was that the three witches were three garbage men. Great idea!
The Taming of the Shrew is absolutely wonderful. The extremely bad-tempered politician Katherine Minola (Shirley Henderson) marries the quirky Petruchio (Rufus Sewell) for his title a very short time after meeting him. At their wedding he turns up dressed in woman’s clothes. Minola fears that her reputation will be ruined. On the honeymoon Petruchio has set out to tame the overly aggressive Minola and treats her like dirt. When his best friend comes to join them, he manages to bring peace to the couple and make them realize that they are both in love.
This is by far my favourite episode. The actors are great. Especially the tiny Shirley Henderson is marvellous.
The setting of A Midsummer Night’s Dream is great. It is at a holiday resort (similar to Center Parks) where Hermia’s engagement to James is celebrated with her parents and close friends. On the first evening Hermia’s true love Zander shows up to take her away. I am not a big fan of the original play, as it is somehow too much like a soap opera for my taste. But they do it here fairly well. Puck is a fun character, the King and Queen of the Fairies are great, but the lead actors are quite boring.
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