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Dateline: 22nd June, 2003 The Beeb Goes in Search of Shakespeare BBC2 is to launch a major four-art series in Shakespeare on Saturday nights, starting on 28th June. In Search of Shakespeare will be presented by historian Michael Wood (In The Footsteps Of Alexander The Great, Conquistadors, Art Of The Western World and In Search Of The Trojan War) and will tell the story of Shakespeare's life. “To me, it’s a wonderful story!” says Wood.“It’s a Hollywood story. If you were going to pitch the ‘prequel’ to Shakespeare In Love then you’d say that this is the story of a little boy who grew up in a Tudor town in a time of revolution. He had a golden childhood but then everything collapsed.Will was pulled out of school and lost his chance to go to university. And, aged 18, he got a 26-year-old woman pregnant and failed to get an apprenticeship. However, against all the odds, he went on to become the greatest writer the world has ever seen!” The series will not only deal with Shakespeare’s meteoric career, but also his crimes and misdemeanours: his tax dodging, his life with his French landlady, his love for a beautiful boy, and his sexual passion for a black musician. “Through history,we can get to Shakespeare’s feelings, his participation in events and his life experiences,” Wood adds. “Through the real, living thing,we are trying to get to the past." Gregory Doran and members of the RSC will take part in the programmes, not only performing in the sort of venue Shakespeare new (they will do part of Henry V in a Tudor inn yard in Gloucester "with all the galleries still intact," but arriving and setting up, just as Shakespeare and his fellow actors would have done. A hardback book of the same title, which accompanies the series, is published by BBC Worldwide, priced at £20.The series is also available on DVD and VHS. Please note that all three Archive indices are very long and will therefore take some time to download.
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