Simon Schama's Shakespeare - Season 1

Simon Schama's Shakespeare - Season 1

Season 1

Network
DatesJun 22, 2012 - Jun 29, 2012

Episodes

This England
Season 1Episode 160 min

This England

Simon Schama argues that it is impossible to understand how Shakespeare came to belong 'to all time' without understanding just how much he was of his time. Schama explores how, in his history plays, Shakespeare created a vision of England that still rings true today. Against the backdrop of the Reformation, Shakespeare began to dramatize English history and the English character in a new and unprecedented way. From his first blockbuster, Henry VI, he made sure that his England was not just a place where King and Queens strutted and preened, but where ordinary Englishmen and women took centre stage. It was inclusive vision that Shakespeare expanded upon in his masterpiece - Henry IV - a play which presents England in glorious technicolour: kings and pickpockets, country squires and common prostitutes, corrupt knights and ragged soldiers. And at the centre of it all is the outsized figure of Sir John Falstaff - a character that transfixed Elizabethan audiences and still moves us today. Falstaff is Shakespeare's most stupendous creation; an outsized dream of Englishness who embodies more purely the essence of English irreverence, generosity and wit.

Jun 22, 2012
Hollow Crowns
Season 1Episode 260 min

Hollow Crowns

Simon Schama explores Shakespeare’s attitude to the other great subject of his day - Kingship. He asks how far Shakespeare’s most profound tragedies, including Richard II, Hamlet, Macbeth and King Lear, were inspired by his own experience of writing for the courts of Elizabeth and James I.
Jun 29, 2012

Recently Updated Shows

Recently updated shows that might be of your interest.
Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saints
Running

Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saints

Explores the lives and sacrifices of historical saints like Joan of Arc, Francis of Assisi, John the Baptist, Thomas Becket, Mary Magdalene, Moses the Black, Sebastian, and Maximillian Kolbe, highlighting their acts.

GenreHistory
The Traitors
Running

The Traitors

Set in a remote castle in the Scottish Highlands and based on the wildly popular Dutch series of the same name, 5-time Emmy-nominated Alan Cumming plays host to twenty larger-than-life personalities (including reality A-listers and America's best game players) who come together to complete a series of challenges with the objective of earning a cash prize of up to $250,000. The catch? Three of the contestants coined "the traitors" will devise a plan to steal the prize from the other contestants coined "the faithful".

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Running

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

In the criminal justice system, sexually-based offenses are considered especially heinous. In New York City, the dedicated detectives who investigate these vicious felonies are members of an elite squad known as the Special Victims Unit. These are their stories.

Horror's Greatest
Running

Horror's Greatest

Celebrating the very best the genre has to offer, Horror's Greatest is a deep dive into everything we love about horror. From fresh looks at classics to unearthing scores of hidden gems, this series has something for every fright film enthusiast. A gallery of ghoulish pros, including actors, directors, writers, composers, and special effects artists, draw on their unique knowledge to answer the big questions: What are the must-see films in horror's many sub-genres? What's the appeal of horror tropes, and how do today's filmmakers subvert our expectations? What shape does horror take in countries outside of the United States? The answers encompass the breath of the nightmares we watch for our entertainment.

GenreHorror
The Terminal List
Running

The Terminal List

Based on the best-selling novel by Jack Carr, The Terminal List follows James Reece after his entire platoon of Navy SEALs is ambushed during a high-stakes covert mission. Reece returns home to his family with conflicting memories of the event and questions about his culpability. However, as new evidence comes to light, Reece discovers dark forces working against him, endangering not only his life but the lives of those he loves.