The Hollow Crown (TV series)
The Hollow Crown is a series of British television film adaptations of William Shakespeare's history plays.
The Hollow Crown
Historical drama
- Stephen Warbeck
- Adam Cork
- Adrian Johnston
- Dan Jones
United Kingdom
English
Rupert Ryle-Hodges
varies
30 June 2012 –
21 May 2016
The first series is an adaptation of Shakespeare's second historical tetralogy, the Henriad: Richard II, Henry IV, Part 1, Henry IV, Part 2 and Henry V,[1] starring Ben Whishaw, Jeremy Irons and Tom Hiddleston. Olivier Award winners Rupert Goold, Richard Eyre and Thea Sharrock directed the telefilms,[2] which were produced by Rupert Ryle-Hodges for BBC Two and executive produced by Sam Mendes and Pippa Harris under Neal Street Productions in association with NBCUniversal. The first series, which aired in the United Kingdom in 2012, received positive reviews from critics. Ben Whishaw and Simon Russell Beale won British Academy Television Awards for Leading actor and Supporting actor for their performances as Richard II and Falstaff, and Jeremy Irons was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actor for his role as Henry IV. The first episode, Richard II, was nominated for the Best Single Drama at the BAFTA TV Awards.[3]
The BBC aired the concluding series in 2016 as The Hollow Crown: The Wars of the Roses, a reference to the series of English civil wars known as the Wars of the Roses,[4] starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Hugh Bonneville, Judi Dench, Sophie Okonedo and Tom Sturridge. The plays were produced in 2015 by the same team that made the first series of films but were directed by the former artistic director of Royal Court Theatre and Olivier Award winner, Dominic Cooke.[5] They are based on Shakespeare's first tetralogy: Henry VI, Part 1, Henry VI, Part 2, Henry VI, Part 3 and Richard III.[6] The adaptation presents Henry VI in two parts, incorporating all three Henry VI plays. Benedict Cumberbatch was nominated for the BAFTA Television Award for Best Leading Actor and The Wars of the Roses was nominated for Best Mini-Series.[7]
The title of the series is taken from a line in Richard II:
List indicators:
Broadcast[edit]
The first four plays aired on consecutive Saturday evenings on BBC Two between 30 June and 21 July 2012. The start time of Henry IV, Part 1 on 7 July was delayed by an hour because of coverage of the 2012 Wimbledon Championships, and the play was shown a second time the following evening on BBC Four.[14] The plays were shown in the United States from 20 September to 11 October 2013 as part of the PBS Great Performances series.[15]
All four plays were shown again on consecutive evenings on BBC Four in April 2016 as part of the BBC Shakespeare Festival commemorating the 400th anniversary of the playwright's death. The second series of plays aired on consecutive Saturday evenings on BBC Two commencing Saturday 7 May 2016.[16][17]
Home media[edit]
The overseas and DVD rights for The Hollow Crown series are owned by NBC Universal.[18] A Region 2 DVD set of the four films was released on 1 October 2012.[19] A Region 1 DVD set was released on 17 September 2013.[20] A 2-disc DVD set of The Wars of the Roses was released on 20 June 2016.
The original music soundtrack from The Hollow Crown: The Wars of the Roses composed by Dan Jones was released on the Wave Theory Records label in June 2016 and performed by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.[21][22]