After a triumphant run at The Courtyard Theatre in Stratford and at London's Novello Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company had no doubts about bringing director Greg Doran's production of William Shakespeare's Hamlet to BBC Two. It's a cinch with acclaimed Doctor Who David Tennant in the lead and Patrick Stewart in the role that earned him a third Laurence Olivier Award. Most famous for Star Trek and X-Men, Stewart has a long history with Shakespeare and, in fact, already has a performance as Claudius enshrined in the pantheon of TV Hamlets that includes the following eclectic group.
Hallmark Hall of Fame: Hamlet (1953)
Directed by Albert McCleery, this was the first U.S. Shakespeare production more than an hour long to air on network television. It also marked the net-TV debut of star Maurice Evans, already a veteran Broadway Hamlet.
Hamlet, Prinz von Danemark (1961)
German TV aired this Maximillian Schell-starring version, which was staged for the 1960 Munich August Festival. But technical problems caused the English-dubbed version, featuring Ricardo Montalban as the voice of Claudius, to flop in the U.S. In the late '90s, Mystery Science Theater 3000 ridiculed the "painfully-overwrought main character and cheesy production values."
Hamlet at Elsinore (1964)
Philip Saville directed the first TV Shakespeare filmed on location, at Kronborg Slot, the "Elsinore castle" setting of the play. Christopher Plummer snagged an Emmy nomination for his turn as the melancholy Dane. He was supported by Robert Shaw as Claudius, Donald Sutherland as Fortinbras, and Michael Caine as Horatio in his only filmed Shakespearean role. Also featured was Steven Berkoff, an acclaimed stage Hamlet and author of the book I Am Hamlet. This production has never been released to video and can only be glimpsed briefly in the 1991 film Michael Caine: Breaking the Mold.
Hallmark Hall of Fame: Hamlet (1970)
Richard Chamberlain's notable performance in a BBC drama inspired the Birmingham Repertory Theatre to invite the star of TV's Dr. Kildare to play Hamlet for director Peter Wood. According to Time magazine, Chamberlain "was the first American to dare Hamlet in Britain since John Barrymore," and he did so opposite Sirs Michael Redgrave and John Gielgud, two acclaimed former Hamlets. But, as the Times critic warned after seeing the show, "Anyone who comes to this production prepared to scoff at the sight of a popular American television actor playing Hamlet will be in for a deep disappointment." So it was a no-brainer when "Hallmark Hall of Fame" ran it on NBC, albeit in a truncated, two-hour adaptation.
The BBC Television Shakespeare: Hamlet (1980)
Part of the ambitious production of the full canon, this Rodney Bennett-helmed Hamlet starred Derek Jacobi, with Patrick Stewart as Claudius (both reprising their stage roles). According to Alan Vanneman of Bright Lights Film Journal, Lalla Ward (aka The Honorable Lady Sarah Ward) performed Ophelia's mad scenes commendably and Jacobi, one of the most experienced 20th century Hamlets, did "quite a nice job" with the climactic fencing match. This film is available on U.S. DVD under the Complete Dramatic Works of William Shakespeare banner. Incidentally, Claire Bloom (Gertrude) had auditioned for Ophelia in Laurence Olivier's 1948 big-screen effort.
New York Shakespeare Festival: Hamlet (1990)
Kevin Kline co-directed (with Kirk Browning) and starred in the production televised as part of the PBS Great Performances anthology. Bright Lights Film Journal's Alan Vanneman applauded Dana Ivey's "very sensual performance as Gertrude," but felt Kline underplayed the lead role, beginning each soliloquy "in a heavy whisper" and finishing with "a single tear." Diane Venora came to Ophelia already an old-hand at the play, having performed the title character for director Joseph Papp. She went on to co-star as Gertrude in Michael Almereyda's 2000 cinematic version.
Shakespeare: The Animated Tales - Hamlet (1992)
BBC Wales initiated this series for channel S4C and hired Russian directors and animators to helm the episodes. Professor Stanley Wells consulted on the scripts written by children's author Leon Garfield. Nicholas Farrell lent his voice to the lead character and Tilda Swinton co-starred as Ophelia in the half-hour Hamlet, for which animator Natalia Orlova used an oil-on-glass technique described as "oddly both fluid and static."
Hallmark Entertainment's Hamlet (2000)
Campbell Scott starred in and co-directed (with Eric Simonson) this production with a vague, late-19th century setting. While not a fan of the film, Alan Vanneman found the Hamlet-Ghost sequence impressive: "Scott convinces us that Hamlet's words really are 'wild and whirling' - that Horatio and Marcellus do doubt his sanity. And perhaps the ghost has unhinged him." Vanneman also praised Roscoe Lee Browne as Polonius, who "keeps a constant grip on his mighty, Shakespearean voice, and never gets stentorian... It's impossible to play Polonius as a consistent character, because Shakespeare didn't write him that way, but Browne comes [close]."
The Tragedy of Hamlet (2002)
Critics on both sides of the Atlantic lauded director Peter Brook's rearranged, "recontextualized" adaptation. It featured a minimally-dressed set and a small, mainly non-Western cast led by Adrian Lester as, in the words of New York Times critic Ben Brantley, "a slim, angular, dreadlocked figure in black." According to John Murphy of Bardolatry.com, Lester played Hamlet "as if no other actor has ever tackled the part," and the performance earned him a Carlton TV Theatre Award. Bruce Myers received praise from Alan Vanneman for presenting "a slow, pensive Claudius, ruminating over the wickedness of the world, and the nature of guilt and repentance."
Hamlet (2009)
Illuminations Television produced the RSC version, which co-stars Oliver Ford Davies as Polonius and Penny Downie as Gertrude. Shot in 18 days, the TV adaptation clocks in at 180 minutes and will be released to DVD after the BBC2 airing. It then travels to the U.S. in 2010 for broadcast on the PBS series Great Performances.
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