Dr Jacques COULARDEAU This is a simple comedy by Shakespeare. Nothing to deface the world with laughter or to haunt your sleepless nights. But we find in this light comedy some themes that are dear to our playwright. Love, and love, and love. The love of a girl for a boy, of a young woman for a young man, a love that cannot exist because of the social difference between the two. The ingenuity and creativity of the young woman who saves the life of the king with the medical knowledge she received from her father, and the promise of the King to give her any man she wants. She chooses the young man who is well obliged to oblige and get married, which does not mean consume the union. He goes to the war and the young woman is going to follow and with some other young women she will trick him into impregnating her and an exchange of rings will make the situation very difficult for him. So the union has been consumed sort of on the side and the young man graciously accepts his defeat and declares his love. That is slightly artificial but Shakespeare in his comedies at times is slightly superficial. Another theme that is dealt with nicely is the "captain" that takes care of the young noble man we are dealing with when serving in the military. He is a liar, he is a coward, he is also running after skirts as much as he can. Shakespeare disgraces him with some kind of conjuration and he ends up nearly a beggar, stinking to hell and blazes and ready to do anything to get a penny. That's a very simple version of what Falstaff is going to be later but he is funny in some ways though pathetic. The BBC is adding to that play that is mostly taking place in France, and a little in Florence, a setting and costumes that are, in the house of the young man, very close to the Flemish school of painting, Rembrandt and the Van Eyck brothers. That gives to the play a post-Renaissance touch that is slightly surprising.Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne, University Paris 8 Saint Denis, University Paris 12 Créteil, CEGID

Alain English Though not nearly as much fun as some of Shakespeare's better comedies, this is nevertheless good fun to watch. Although it irritates me to see Shakespeare performed in stodgy period dress, it's still a well-acted piece.I was especially fond of Peter Jeffrey as the foppish Parolles. I like Shakespeare when he portrays upper-class idiots as he has a tendency in too many of his plays ("Measure for Measure", "A Midsummer Night's Dream")to portray the working classes as fools or rustics whose natural place is subservient to the lords and ladies who are so often his principal characters. This is patronising, but is some way made up for here. Jeffrey is excellent fun and his verbal duels with Micheal Horden's Lafeu are the best scenes in the play.Angela Down is very good is the smart Helena, and Ian Charleson has the right mix of charm and sullenness as Bertram, her unwilling choice of husband. Pippa Guard is very fetching as the maid Diana, and Donald Sinden gives a good performance as the King of France.By no means a classic of Shakespeare's, it's still a good watch.

tonstant viewer The production design of this video is based on paintings by Vermeer, Rembrandt, de la Tour and others. It is uniformly striking and lovely, and will live in the memory.The acting performances are good, but uneasy, perhaps reflecting the problematic nature of the play. Ian Charleson's Bertram is cold, Angela Down's Helen is weepy, and so they stay for yards and yards of iambic pentameter. Only Donald Sinden as the King errs on the side of too much emotional variety, but it's hard to remember a Sinden performance in which he wasn't an explosive law unto himself. Michael Hordern and Peter Jeffrey battle deftly as Lafeu and Parolles, while Paul Brooke's Lavache is more menacing than witty. Pippa Guard's Diana is unfailingly dignified, and a small cameo by the aged Valentine Dyall proves unexpectedly moving. And as the Countess, Celia Johnson's presence is every bit as sympathetic here as it was in "Brief Encounter" 35 years earlier.Any dissatisfactions mentioned in this review are just quibbles, however, as the play is rare and worthwhile, the production gratifies the eye, and no one writes a closing reconciliation scene like Shakespeare. Indeed, All's Well That Ends Well.

Dan1863Sickles Chaste, thoughtful Helena loves cold, self-centered Bertram. But when the handsome young man rejects her common birth with aristocratic scorn, unexpected events lead to deception and passion! This dark Shakespeare play is one of the real gems of the BBC collection. Everything is right about the costumes, the actors, the sets, and the lush sensuality of the presentation. Ian Charleson as Bertram is more of a villain than a hero through much of the play, laughing at Helena's tears and running off to play with his soldier friends. Yet when lust strikes him in turn, he is humbled. Pippa Guard is refined and hauntingly beautiful as Diana, the girl from the "wrong side of the tracks" (or the Elizabethan equivalent) whom the haughty Bertram plans to seduce. Diana is not just a cheap tramp. She has a desperate purity. Far from welcoming the noble's advances, she reacts like a frightened deer, or a cornered rabbit, shying from Bertram's cynical touch. Only the shrewd scheming of Helena and her high-born friends (including a king who recognizes her true worth) allows her to capture Bertram's heart at last. Humbled and humiliated by his total downfall, (and Diana's scorn) Bertram falls into forgiving Helena's open arms and proclaims his passionate devotion.A sexy play, full of romantic longing, arrogant elegance, and sheer unadulterated desire!