From the stage of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, David Tennant, Catherine Tate and guests mark the life of William Shakespeare on the 400th anniversary of the playwright's death.
04-23-2016
2h 24m
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Main Cast
Movie Details
Production Info
Directors:
Gregory Doran, Tim Taggart, Bridget Caldwell, Robin Mason
Writer:
Al Smith
Production:
Royal Shakespeare Company, BBC
Key Crew
Producer:
Catherine Stirk
Executive Producer:
Phil Dolling
Producer:
John Wyver
Original Music Composer:
Rufus Wainwright
Locations and Languages
Country:
GB
Filming:
GB
Languages:
en
Main Cast
David Tennant
David John Tennant (né McDonald; born 18 April 1971) is a Scottish actor. He is best known for portraying the tenth incarnation of the Doctor in the sci-fi series Doctor Who (2005–2010; 2013). In 2022, he returned to the show as the fourteenth incarnation. His other notable screen roles include DI Alec Hardy in the crime drama series Broadchurch (2013–2017) and its 2014 remake, Kilgrave in the superhero series Jessica Jones (2015–2019), Crowley in the fantasy series Good Omens (2019–present), and various fictionalised versions of himself in the comedy series Staged (2020–2022).
Tennant has worked extensively on stage, including a portrayal of the title character in a 2008 Royal Shakespeare Company production of Hamlet that was later adapted for television. He is also a voice actor, featuring in the animated series DuckTales (2017–2021) as the voice of Scrooge McDuck. In 2015, he received the National Television Award for Special Recognition.
Description above from the Wikipedia article David Tennant, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Catherine Jane Ford (born 5 December 1969), known professionally as Catherine Tate, is an English actress, comedian and writer. She has won numerous awards for her work on the BBC sketch comedy series The Catherine Tate Show (2004–2007), as well as being nominated for an International Emmy Award and seven BAFTAs. Tate played Donna Noble in the 2006 Christmas special of Doctor Who, and later reprised her role for the fourth series in 2008, and 60th anniversary episodes in 2023.
Dame Judith Olivia "Judi" Dench, CH, DBE, FRSA (born 9 December 1934) is an English film, stage and television actress.
Dench made her professional debut in 1957 with the Old Vic Company. Over the following few years she played in several of William Shakespeare's plays in such roles as Ophelia in Hamlet, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet and Lady Macbeth in Macbeth. She branched into film work, and won a BAFTA Award as Most Promising Newcomer; however, most of her work during this period was in theatre. Not generally known as a singer, she drew strong reviews for her leading role in the musical Cabaret in 1968.
During the next two decades, she established herself as one of the most significant British theatre performers, working for the National Theatre Company and the Royal Shakespeare Company. In television, she achieved success during this period, in the series A Fine Romance from 1981 until 1984 and in 1992 began a continuing role in the television romantic comedy series As Time Goes By.
Her film appearances were infrequent until she was cast as M in GoldenEye (1995), a role she played in each James Bond film until Skyfall (2012). She received several notable film awards for her role as Queen Victoria in Mrs. Brown (1997), and has since been acclaimed for her work in such films as Shakespeare in Love (1998), Chocolat (2000), Iris (2001), Mrs Henderson Presents (2005) and Notes on a Scandal (2006), and the television production The Last of the Blonde Bombshells (2001).
Regarded by critics as one of the greatest actresses of the post-war period, and frequently named as the leading British actress in polls, Dench has received many award nominations for her acting in theatre, film and television; her awards include ten BAFTAs, seven Laurence Olivier Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, two Golden Globes, an Academy Award, and a Tony Award.
She was married to actor Michael Williams from 1971 until his death in 2001. They are the parents of actress Finty Williams.
Benedict Timothy Carlton Cumberbatch (born 19 July 1976) is an English actor. Known for his roles on the screen and stage, he has received various accolades throughout his career, including a Primetime Emmy Award, a British Academy Television Award, and a Laurence Olivier Award. Cumberbatch won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Play for Frankenstein and a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Movie for Sherlock. His performances in the dramas The Imitation Game (2014) and The Power of the Dog (2021) earned him nominations for an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a Golden Globe Award, all for Best Actor in a Leading Role. For playing the title role in five-part drama miniseries Patrick Melrose, he won a BAFTA TV Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role.
In 2014 Time magazine included him in its annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world, and in 2015 he was appointed a CBE by Queen Elizabeth II in the 2015 Birthday Honours for services to the performing arts and to charity. A graduate of the Victoria University of Manchester, Cumberbatch continued his training at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, obtaining a Master of Arts in Classical Acting. He first performed at the Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park in Shakespearean productions and made his West End debut in Richard Eyre's revival of Hedda Gabler in 2005. Since then, he has starred in the Royal National Theatre productions After the Dance (2010) and Frankenstein (2011). In 2015, he played the title role in Hamlet at the Barbican Theatre.
Cumberbatch's television work includes his performance as Stephen Hawking in the television film Hawking in 2004. He gained worldwide recognition for his performance as Sherlock Holmes in the BBC series Sherlock from 2010 to 2017. He has also headlined Tom Stoppard's adaptation of Parade's End (2012), The Hollow Crown: The Wars of the Roses (2016), Patrick Melrose (2018), and Brexit: The Uncivil War (2019). In films, Cumberbatch has starred in Amazing Grace (2006) as William Pitt the Younger, Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) as Khan, 12 Years a Slave (2013) as William Prince Ford, The Fifth Estate (2013) as Julian Assange, and The Imitation Game (2014) as Alan Turing. He also acted in the historical dramas The Current War (2017), 1917 (2019) and The Courier (2020), and received critical acclaim for his performance in Jane Campion's Western drama The Power of the Dog (2021). From 2012 to 2014, through voice and motion capture, he played the characters of Smaug and Sauron in The Hobbit film series. Cumberbatch portrays Dr. Stephen Strange in the Marvel Cinematic Universe films, beginning with Doctor Strange (2016), and also voiced the character in the animated series What If...? (2021).
Joseph Alberic Iscariot Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes (born 27 May 1970) is an English film and stage actor.
He is perhaps best known for his portrayals of William Shakespeare in Shakespeare in Love, Sir Robert Dudley in Elizabeth, Commisar Danilov in Enemy at the Gates, Martin Luther in Luther, and his portrayal of Mark Benford in the 2009 TV series FlashForward.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Joseph Fiennes, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Sir Ian Murray McKellen CH CBE (born 25 May 1939) is an English actor. With a career spanning more than sixty years, he is noted for his roles on the screen and stage in genres ranging from Shakespearean dramas and modern theatre to popular fantasy and science fiction. He is regarded as a British cultural icon and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1991. He has received numerous accolades, including a Tony Award, six Olivier Awards, and a Golden Globe Award, as well as nominations for two Academy Awards, five BAFTA Awards, and five Emmy Awards.
McKellen made his stage debut in 1961 at the Belgrade Theatre as a member of its repertory company, and in 1965 he made his first West End appearance. In 1969, he was invited to join the Prospect Theatre Company to play the lead parts in Shakespeare's Richard II and Marlowe's Edward II. In the 1970s McKellen became a stalwart of the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre of Great Britain. He has earned five Olivier Awards for his roles in Pillars of the Community (1977), The Alchemist (1978), Bent (1979), Wild Honey (1984), and Richard III (1995). McKellen made his Broadway debut in The Promise (1965). He went on to receive the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his role as Antonio Salieri in Amadeus (1980). He was further nominated for Ian McKellen: Acting Shakespeare (1984). He returned to Broadway in Wild Honey (1986), Dance of Death (1990), No Man's Land (2013), and Waiting for Godot (2013), the latter two being a joint production with Patrick Stewart.
McKellen achieved worldwide fame for his film roles, including the titular King in Richard III (1995), James Whale in Gods and Monsters (1998), Magneto in the X-Men films, and Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings (2001–2003) and The Hobbit (2012–2014) trilogies. Other notable film roles include A Touch of Love (1969), Plenty (1985), Six Degrees of Separation (1993), Restoration (1995), Mr. Holmes (2015), and The Good Liar (2019).
McKellen came out as gay in 1988 and has since championed LGBT social movements worldwide. He was awarded the Freedom of the City of London in October 2014. McKellen is a cofounder of Stonewall, an LGBT rights lobby group in the United Kingdom, named after the Stonewall riots. He is also patron of LGBT History Month, Pride London, Oxford Pride, GayGlos, LGBT Foundation, and FFLAG.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Ian McKellen, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Dame Helen Lydia Mirren DBE (née Mironoff; born 26 July 1945) is an English actor. The recipient of numerous accolades, she is the only person to achieve the Triple Crown of Acting in both the United States and the United Kingdom. She received an Academy Award and a British Academy Film Award for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in The Queen, a Tony Award and a Laurence Olivier Award for the same role in The Audience, three British Academy Television Awards for her performance as DCI Jane Tennison in Prime Suspect, and four Primetime Emmy Awards, including two for Prime Suspect.
Excelling on stage with the National Youth Theatre, Mirren's performance as Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra in 1965 saw her invited to join the Royal Shakespeare Company before she made her West End stage debut in 1975. Since then, Mirren has also had success in television and film. Aside from her Academy Award-winning performance, Mirren's other Oscar-nominated performances were for The Madness of King George (1994), Gosford Park (2001), and The Last Station (2009). For her role on Prime Suspect, which ran from 1991 to 2006, she won three consecutive British Academy Television Awards for Best Actress (1992, 1993 and 1994), a joint-record of consecutive wins shared with Julie Walters, and two Primetime Emmy Awards. Playing Queen Elizabeth I in the television series Elizabeth I (2005), and Queen Elizabeth II in the film The Queen (2006), she is the only actor to have portrayed both the regnant Elizabeths on screen.
After her breakthrough film role in The Long Good Friday (1980), other notable film roles included Cal (1984), for which she won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress, 2010 (1984), The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989), Teaching Mrs. Tingle (1999), Calendar Girls (2003), Hitchcock (2012), The Hundred-Foot Journey (2014), Woman in Gold (2015), Trumbo (2015), and The Leisure Seeker (2017). She also appeared in the action films Red (2010) and Red 2 (2013) playing an ex-MI6 assassin, and in the Fast & Furious films The Fate of the Furious (2017), Hobbs & Shaw (2019), and F9 (2021).
In the Queen's 2003 Birthday Honours, Mirren was appointed a Dame (DBE) for services to drama, with investiture taking place at Buckingham Palace. In 2013 she was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and in 2014 she received the BAFTA Fellowship for lifetime achievement from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. In 2021, she was announced as the recipient of the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Helen Mirren, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Sir Simon Russell Beale CBE (born January 12, 1961) is an English actor. He is known for his appearances in film, television and theatre, and work on radio, on audiobooks and as a narrator. For his services to drama, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace in 2019.
He has spent much of his theatre career working in productions for both the Royal Shakespeare Company and National Theatre. He has received ten Laurence Olivier Award nominations, winning three awards for his performances in Volpone (1996), Candide (2000), and Uncle Vanya (2003). For his work on the Broadway stage he has received a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play nomination for his performance as George in the Tom Stoppard play Jumpers in 2004. For his role as Henry Lehman in The Lehman Trilogy, he won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play and was nominated for an Olivier Award. Beale has been described by The Independent as "the greatest stage actor of his generation".
Beale made his film debut in Sally Potter's period drama Orlando (1992). He continued acting in films such as Persuasion (1995), Hamlet (1996), My Week with Marilyn (2011), The Deep Blue Sea (2011), Into the Woods (2014), and Mary Queen of Scots (2018). In 2017, he starred in Armando Iannucci's dark comedy The Death of Stalin playing Lavrentiy Beria for which he received the British Independent Film Award for Best Supporting Actor. He has also appeared in the television projects The Young Visiters (2003), Dunkirk (2004), and as Falstaff in the BBC made-for-television films Henry IV, Part I and Part II (2012). He was part of the main cast of Showtime's Penny Dreadful.
Richard David-Caine is an English actor, writer and voiceover artist. He plays the character of Line in the CBeebies series Swashbuckle. He is also part of the key ensembles in the BBC comedies Horrible Histories and Class Dismissed; for the latter he was nominated in the 2017 and 2019 RTS Awards for Best Performance in a Comedy.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Anne-Marie Duff (born 8 October 1970) is an English stage and screen actress. She rose to prominence playing Fiona Gallagher on the first two seasons of UK television series Shameless. She then played Queen Elizabeth I in The Virgin Queen (2006), and also the lead role in the television series From Darkness in 2015.
Duff has had roles in films such as Enigma (2001), The Magdalene Sisters (2002), Notes on a Scandal (2006), French Film (2008), The Last Station and Nowhere Boy (both 2009), Before I Go to Sleep (2014), and Suffragette (2015).
Her performances in Shameless, The Virgin Queen, Nowhere Boy and Suffragette earned her BAFTA nominations in the Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress categories, and she was awarded the BAFTA Cymru Award for Best Actress for her work in the 2007 television film The History of Mr Polly.
Paapa Essiedu (born 11 June 1990) is a British actor. He grew up in East London with his mother, who was a fashion and design teacher. His family comes from Ghana, where he has a half brother and sister. He won a scholarship to The Forest School, Walthamstow and his ambition as he grew older was to become a doctor. Essiedu became more involved with Shakespeare when he was accepted into the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Perhaps Essiedu's most famous Shakespeare role was for the lead character in Royal Shakespeare Company's Hamlet in 2016.
Alexander Stephen Hassell (born 7 September 1980) is an English actor. He is co-founder of The Factory Theatre Company. Hassell was born in Southend, England, the youngest of four, to a vicar. He trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama after completing GCSE and A-Level courses at Moulsham High School, in Chelmsford, Essex.
He has appeared in a number of stage roles, most recently as Hal in Henry IV Parts I and II, and Henry in Henry V, for the Royal Shakespeare Company. His first Hollywood role was in George Clooney's Suburbicon (2017), and later that year he appeared in his first major television role in the BBC adaptation of Jessie Burton's The Miniaturist, which first aired on Boxing Day. He also appeared as Translucent in the first season of The Boys (2019) on Amazon Prime Video, and played Vicious in Netflix's Cowboy Bebop in 2021.
Rory Kinnear (born February 17, 1978) is an English actor and playwright who has worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal National Theatre.
He is best known for playing Bill Tanner in the James Bond films Quantum of Solace, Skyfall, and Spectre, and in various video games of the franchise. He is the youngest actor to play the role of Bill Tanner. He also won a Laurence Olivier Award for portraying Fopling Flutter in a 2008 version of The Man of Mode, and a British Independent Film Award for his performance in the 2012 film Broken. In 2014, he won the Olivier Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Shakespeare's villain Iago in the National Theatre production of Othello.
John Arthur Lithgow (born October 19, 1945) is an American actor. Prolific in films, television and on stage, Lithgow is the recipient of numerous accolades, including two Golden Globe Awards, six Primetime Emmy Awards, three Screen Actors Guild Awards, two Tony Awards and nominations for two Academy Awards and four Grammy Awards. He was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame and has received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Lithgow studied at Harvard University winning a Fulbright scholarship and getting a chance to attend the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. From there he focused his training on the New York stage beginning a distinguished career on Broadway. In 1973, Lithgow received his first Tony Award for his performance in The Changing Room. In 1976 Lithgow acted alongside Meryl Streep in three plays 27 Wagons Full of Cotton, A Memory of Two Mondays and Secret Service. In the 1980s he continued to receive Tony Awards nominations for his performances in Requiem for a Heavyweight (1985) and M. Butterfly (1988). In 2002, Lithgow received his second Tony Award, this time for a musical, The Sweet Smell of Success and another nomination for Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (2005). In 2007, he made his Royal Shakespeare Company debut as Malvolio in Neil Bartlett's production of Twelfth Night. He has also appeared on Broadway in the acclaimed plays The Columnist (2012) and A Delicate Balance (2014). He portrayed Bill Clinton in Hillary and Clinton (2019) alongside Laurie Metcalf as Hillary Clinton.
Lithgow is also known for his television roles such as Dick Solomon in the sitcom 3rd Rock from the Sun (1996–2001) winning three Primetime Emmy Awards for Best Actor in a Comedy Series for his performance. He also played Arthur Mitchell in the drama Dexter (2009) and he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama. In 2004, Lithgow played Blake Edwards in the HBO television movie, The Life and Death of Peter Sellers. He has also appeared on 30 Rock, How I Met Your Mother, Louie and Drunk History. Lithgow won great acclaim for his portrayal of Winston Churchill in Peter Morgan's historical drama The Crown (2016–2019) on Netflix. For acting in The Crown he won a Primetime Emmy Award and Screen Actors Guild Award. In 2020, he had a recurring role on the HBO period series Perry Mason.
He is also well known for his film roles. His early screen roles included Bob Fosse's All That Jazz (1979) and Brian De Palma's Blow Out (1981). He received his first Academy Award nomination for his breakout performance in The World According to Garp (1982) and received a second Academy Award nomination for Terms of Endearment (1983). He then starred in the films Footloose (1984), Harry and the Hendersons (1987), The Pelican Brief and Cliffhanger (1993), A Civil Action (1998), Rugrats in Paris: The Movie (2000), Shrek (2001), Kinsey (2004), Dreamgirls (2006), Love Is Strange (2014), Miss Sloane (2016) and Beatriz at Dinner (2017). In 2019 he appeared in Mindy Kaling's comedy Late Night and portrayed Roger Ailes in Bombshell.
Tim Minchin is an Australian musician, actor, comedian and writer. He has been performing his unique brand of musical comedy in front of appropriately excitable and ever growing audiences since starting out in South Melbourne’s Butterfly Club in 2005. He won the Director’s Award at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival for his break-out show Darkside, and followed this later the same year with one of the most successful debut acts ever at the Edinburgh Fringe – winning the
Perrier Award for Best Newcomer. Without wanting to go on and on about it, he’s done some pretty successful live shows since then, often in Australia or the UK, but also on the North American continent (yes that includes you too Canada). But not you Guatemala. Maybe one day. His current songs span topics such as environmentalism, rationalism, prejudice(ism) and his amour de boobs(ism). In fact it would hardly be over the top to say that his love of boobs would be up there in the back of Plato’s cave in the bit that’s carved out for the most perfect and complete example of the love of boobs. But not in a weird way. During his shows he plays the piano, always nicely and oftentimes wildly and excitingly, whilst looking wonderfully athletic, in a pair of delightfully uncomfortable skinny jeans. Tim has made many TV appearances: most recently on Good News Week in Australia and Friday Night with Jonathan Ross in the UK. He’s also performed on radio; his most recent project being Strings, a brand new comedy sitcom pilot for BBC Radio 2, which he both wrote and starred in. His acclaimed 9-minute beat poem, Storm, is being animated for release in October. Tim is currently writing the music and lyrics for the musical Matilda with the Royal Shakespeare Company. This adaptation of the Roald Dahl classic opens in Stratford-upon-Avon in November 2010. Tim, his wife and two young children, now live in London.
Sir Antony Sher, KBE (born 14 June 1949) was an English actor of South African origin, a two-time Laurence Olivier Award winner and four-time nominee. He joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1982 and toured in many roles, as well as appearing on film and TV, and working as a writer and theatre director. He died of cancer on 3rd December 2021.
Rufus McGarrigle Wainwright (born July 22, 1973) is a Canadian American singer-songwriter. He has recorded six albums of original music, EPs, and tracks on compilations and film soundtracks.
Dame Harriet Mary Walter DBE (born 24 September 1950) is a British actress. She has received a Laurence Olivier Award as well as numerous nominations including for a Tony Award, three Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. In 2011, she was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) for services to drama.
Walter began her career in 1974 and made her Broadway debut in 1983. For her work in various Royal Shakespeare Company productions, including Twelfth Night (1987–88) and Three Sisters (1988), she won the 1988 Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Revival. Her other notable work for the RSC includes leading roles in Macbeth (1999) and Antony and Cleopatra (2006). She won the Evening Standard Award for Best Actress for her role as Elizabeth I in the 2005 London revival of Mary Stuart, and received a Tony Award nomination for Best Actress in a Play when she reprised the role on Broadway in 2009. She reprised her roles of Brutus in Julius Caesar (2012) and the title role in Henry IV (2014), as well as playing Prospero in The Tempest, as part of an all-female Shakespeare trilogy in 2016.
Her film appearances include Sense and Sensibility (1995), The Governess (1998), Villa des Roses (2002), Atonement (2007), The Young Victoria (2009), A Royal Affair (2012), Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015), Denial (2016), The Sense of an Ending (2017), Rocketman (2019) and Ridley Scott's The Last Duel (2021). On television she starred as Natalie Chandler in the ITV drama series Law & Order: UK (2009–14), in four episodes of Downton Abbey (2013–15), in the miniseries London Spy (2015), as Clementine Churchill in The Crown (2016), in Patrick Melrose (2018), and in the third season of Killing Eve (2020). She is a three-time Primetime Emmy Award nominee; two for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for Succession (2018–21) and one for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for Ted Lasso (2021).
Description above from the Wikipedia article Harriet Walter, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George) is King of the United Kingdom and 14 other Commonwealth realms. He acceded to the throne on 8 September 2022 upon the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II. As Duke of Cornwall and Duke of Rothesay from 1952 to his accession, he was the oldest and the longest-serving heir apparent in British history, and the longest-serving Prince of Wales, having held the title from 26 July 1958 until his accession. At 73 years of age, Charles is also the oldest person ever to assume the British throne, a record previously held by William IV at age 64.
