My Shakespeare

My Shakespeare is a little series running on Sky Arts. Now I know that I should probably deride Sky Arts as the televisual equivalent of Classic FM but I must confess to a liking for Classic FM - so much less daunting than Radio 3. Does that make me a bad person?

Overgraduate's fave play

So far I've watched the first two editions and the remainder are lined up on the old Sky box. The first was Morgan Freeman on Taming of the Shrew - a play with which I do despite my every effort still struggle, what with me being a feminist and all. Mind you I did like the idea of a Wild West set Shrew. The second was closer to my home territory: Kim Cattrall on Antony and Cleopatra, which, depending on the direction of the cultural wind, can be my favourite Shakespeare. Cattrall has played Cleopatra under the direction of the estimable Janet Suzman and Suzman was one of the interviewees on the programme. So was the even more estimable Jonathan Bate. But despite these star turns the show missed a trick. Bate (who really ought to be given a show, no a series, of his own) was given too little time and in particular was denied the chance to expound his theory that Enobarbus was a role Shakespeare wrote for himself. That however is a personal little quibble. The far graver offence was the prominence it gave to the ridiculous Vanessa Redgrave - great actress but specialist in risible opinions. I've scolded her before for her professed support of the premiss of the lamentable Anonymous, and this time she postulated that Antony never actually loves Cleopatra. I think the technical term is - bollocks. Rather more worthy of consideration was Patrick Stewart's insight that he had decided to play Antony as an alcoholic - Antony as alcoholic that is, not Stewart.