The First Part of King Henry the Fourth, with the Life and Death of Henry Surnamed Hotspur

The BBC Television Shakespeare is a fascinating series for seeing so many talented actors and seeing the plays, familiar and not so familiar, adapted and performed relatively faithfully on the whole. Some are better than others, with not every performance in the series working and there could be issues with low budget production values and in some productions stage direction.

When it comes to the best productions of the BBC Television Shakespeare series, to me 'The First Part of King Henry the Fourth and The Life and Death of Henry Renamed Hotspur' is among the best. Have enjoyed to loved most though, but it was lovely to see one of Shakespeare's best mixes of comedy and drama done so beautifully and those not familiar with it will find it an education.

It is visually a solid production, while not elaborate or lavish the action feels opened up and not confined. The use of music was lovely, couldn't question any of the placements and it is lovely music in its own right.

On a stage direction level, it is one of the main reasons as to why 'The First Part of Henry the Fourth' is one of the series' best. It is always absorbing, and it is agreed that it mixes both comedy, which is very funny and often hilarious, and drama, which is poignant. Not only because the energy is never lost, it's never static (even the more action-oriented scenes), it is always tasteful with no pointless touches and that it never resorts to overblown excess that swamps everything else. It's also because of the subtleties and the details, big and small, where the characters are so well fleshed out motivations are clear and everything seems to happen for a reason and not randomly.

Jon Finch is very commanding in the title role, no signs of discomfort here. Another standout is Anthony Quayle having the time of his life as Falstaff while David Gwillim is movingly conflicted as Hal. Tim Pigott Smith is an amusing Hotspur.

Concluding, wonderful. 10/10 Bethany Cox