RICHARD II by William Shakespeare – directed by Rupert Goold  (BBC Two)

Richard loses his crown.

This is why you pay out for a TV license. Well, as I live in Italy, I don’t actually have one but if I was still in the UK I’d happily cough up the fee to fund quality productions like this.

Okay, a play written in 1595 is not exactly contemporary drama yet when Patrick Stewart as the aptly named Gaunt pronounces on England’s fading glory, he could easily be making a speech about the state of the nation today:  “this dear dear land is now leased out….. that England, that was wont to conquer others, hath made a shameful conquest of itself.”  Continue reading