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Will Shakespeare
DVD cover
Also known as	Life of Shakespeare William Shakespeare: His Life & Times
Created by	John Mortimer
Written by	John Mortimer
Directed by	Mark Cullingham Robert Knights
Starring	Tim Curry Ian McShane Nicholas Clay Lynette Davies Paul Freeman
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of episodes	6
Production
Producer	Cecil Clarke
Production companies	ATV, RAI
Original release
Network	ITV
Release	13 June (1978-06-13) – 18 July 1978 (1978-07-18)

Will Shakespeare, also known as Life of Shakespeare and William Shakespeare: His Life & Times, is a 1978 British historical drama series created and written by John Mortimer. Broadcast in six parts, the series is a dramatisation of the life and times of the great poet William Shakespeare, played by Tim Curry, and was co-produced by Lew Grade's ATV and RAI and distributed internationally by ITC. The two production companies had collaborated the previous year on Jesus of Nazareth.

Cast

• Tim Curry as William Shakespeare
• Ian McShane as Christopher Marlowe
• Nicholas Clay as the Earl of Southampton
• Lynette Davies as the Countess of Southampton
• Paul Freeman as Richard Burbage
• John Normington as Alex Cooke
• Ron Cook as Jack Rice
• Richard Cordery as Henry Condell
• Ronald Herdman as Sam Crosse
• Roger Lloyd-Pack as Jack Heminge
• Patience Collier as Elizabeth I
• Meg Wynn Owen as Anne Shakespeare

Writing

Each episode is based around the creation of a play and the idea of Shakespeare's life influencing his writing is used as the central plot device. As there are few known facts about the life of Shakespeare, Mortimer embellished upon stories or legends about the playwright's life. These include a supposed apprenticeship with Christopher Marlowe and a homoerotic relationship with the Earl of Southampton.

Mortimer also invented a character whom the Dark Lady of Shakespeare's sonnets was supposedly based upon. The wife of a judge, she falls in love with Shakespeare after seeing his performance as Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet, adding a secondary storyline elaborating on class divisions.

Original literary material

In 1977, Hodder and Stoughton published Will Shakespeare as written by John Mortimer, author of the Rumpole series. Coronet published the paperback edition in 1977, ISBN 0-340-21979-3.

Video release

The series was initially released on VHS under the title William Shakespeare: His Life & Times. A Region 1 DVD release of the series, by A & E television, was released in 2008, simply titled Will Shakespeare. Network Studio released a Region 2 DVD of the series in 2009 under the same title.

See also

• Will (TV series), a 2017 drama about Shakespeare

References

1. ^ Michael Brooke. "Will Shakespeare (1978)". BFI. Retrieved 20 April 2008.
2. "Life of Shakespeare (1978)". IMDb. Retrieved 20 April 2008.

External links

• BFI screenonline page on Will Shakespeare (1978)
• Life of Shakespeare (TV Mini-Series 1978) at IMDb

v t e William Shakespeare
Plays	Comedies All's Well That Ends Well As You Like It The Comedy of Errors Cymbeline Love's Labour's Lost Measure for Measure The Merchant of Venice The Merry Wives of Windsor A Midsummer Night's Dream Much Ado About Nothing Pericles, Prince of Tyre ✻ The Taming of the Shrew The Tempest Twelfth Night The Two Gentlemen of Verona The Two Noble Kinsmen ✻ The Winter's Tale Tragedies Antony and Cleopatra Coriolanus Hamlet Julius Caesar King Lear Macbeth Othello Romeo and Juliet Timon of Athens Titus Andronicus Troilus and Cressida Histories King John Edward III ✻ Richard II Henry IV 1 2 Henry V Henry VI 1 ✻ 2 3 Richard III Henry VIII ✻ Early editions Quarto publications First Folio Second Folio Related Problem plays Late romances Henriad Characters A–K L–Z Ghost character Chronology Performances Settings Scenes
Poems	Shakespeare's sonnets comparison to Petrarch A Lover's Complaint The Phoenix and the Turtle The Rape of Lucrece Venus and Adonis
Apocrypha	Plays Arden of Faversham The Birth of Merlin Cardenio ✻† Double Falsehood Edmund Ironside Fair Em Locrine The London Prodigal Love's Labour's Won † The Merry Devil of Edmonton Mucedorus The Puritan The Second Maiden's Tragedy Sejanus His Fall Sir John Oldcastle Sir Thomas More ✻ The Spanish Tragedy Thomas Lord Cromwell Thomas of Woodstock Ur-Hamlet † Vortigern and Rowena A Yorkshire Tragedy Poems The Passionate Pilgrim To the Queen
Life and works	Birthplace Bibliography Complete Works Translations Coat of arms Collaborations Editors English Renaissance theatre Globe Theatre Handwriting Lord Chamberlain's Men/King's Men The Theatre Curtain Theatre Music New Place Portraits Religious views Sexuality Spelling of his name Stratford-upon-Avon Style Will Grave
Legacy	Attribution studies Authorship question Bardolatry Festivals Gardens Influence Memorials Screen adaptations Shakespeare and Star Trek Shakespeare's influence on Tolkien Works titled after Shakespeare Institutions Folger Shakespeare Library Shakespeare Quarterly Royal Shakespeare Company Royal Shakespeare Theatre Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Shakespeare's Globe (replica) Shakespeare Institute
Family	Anne Hathaway (wife) Susanna Hall (daughter) Hamnet Shakespeare (son) Judith Quiney (daughter) Elizabeth Barnard (granddaughter) John Shakespeare (father) Mary Arden (mother) Gilbert Shakespeare (brother) Joan Shakespeare (sister) Edmund Shakespeare (brother) Richard Shakespeare (grandfather) John Hall (son-in-law) Thomas Quiney (son-in-law)
✻ Shakespeare and other authors † Lost Category

• v
• t
• e

• 1978 British television series debuts
• 1978 British television series endings
• Cultural depictions of William Shakespeare
• Television series by ITC Entertainment
• ITV television dramas
• Period television series
• Television shows produced by Associated Television (ATV)
• British English-language television shows
• Television shows shot at ATV Elstree Studios
• ITC Distributions stubs