Product Description

In this fifteen-part inventive series based on William Shakespeare's history plays, the turmoil, power, mystery and frailty of the English crown in the medieval ages is laid bare in epic style. This series originally aired as live broadcasts and was recorded on film. Starring Sean Connery, Julian Glover, Eileen Atkins, Robert Hardy, Angela Baddeley, Judi Dench and John Warner.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10109 in DVD
• Brand: Warner Brothers
• Released on: 2009-03-31
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Box set, Black & White, DVD, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 5
• Running time: 947 minutes

Features

• In this fifteen-part inventive series based on William Shakespeare's history plays, the turmoil, power, mystery and frailty of the English crown in the medieval ages is laid bare in epic style. This series originally aired as live broadcasts and was recorded on film. Starring Sean Connery, Julian Glover, Eileen Atkins, Robert Hardy, Angela Baddeley, Judi Dench and John Warner.Running Time: 900 min

Customer Reviews

An Unforgettable Experience
Our local PBS station ran this series in the early '60s. As I recall, it was shown then on a one-episode-per-day schedule. I looked forward to each new installment. In the nearly fifty years since then, I have never forgotten that experience and, in fact, have kept in my library the small brochure that PBS sent to its viewers. Thanks to the BBC for giving us the opportunity to experience this once again! I am greatly looking forward to it.
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Now that I have received the DVD set and viewed a large portion of it, I must say that the series is not as I remember it; it is far better. For the time and technology, it is a wonder. I doubt that anything comparable could be done today on live TV. Not to belabor the point, I would simply say than anyone with the slightest appreciation of Shakspeare will find great enjoyment in this production.

The Ageless Age of Kings
By any standard I can think of this series stands out in memory as the finest television treatment of Shakespeare that exists. If for nothing else the performances of Connery as Hotspur, Hardy as Hal and Harry in Henry V, and Richard Daneman as Richard III are worth owning this. Robert Hardy's St. Crispin's Day speech rivals Olivier's and Brannagh's, Daneman's Richard III also rivals Olivier's and the great Stratford performance of Antony Sher. At no time in his long career did Sean Connery ever exceed his incomparable interpretation of Hotspur. I have wished for, prayed for, hoped for an opportunity to see this again, and NOW! Thanks to all the gods of drama.

Fifty years later
We were living in Lincoln, Nebraska, in 1961 when "Age of Kings" was shown on the local public TV station which, I think, was associated with the University of Nebraska. It was so memorable that I have never forgotten it -- especially Robert Hardy's performance as Prince Hal in Henry IV and as Henry V. He was so young and vigorous that his performance transcended the small screen and the absence of color. I've been a devotee of public TV ever since, but nothing was ever as exciting as those plays at that time. Perhaps it was TV's newness at the time, but since then TV drama has been prettied up and has lost its immediacy.