【2012年7月Telegraph】The Hollow Crown: Henry IV: Part 1, BBC Two, review

The Hollow Crown: Henry IV: Part 1, BBC Two, review
Ed Cumming reviews the latest instalment of Shakespeare's tetralogy, Henry IV: Part 1.


Jeremy Irons and Tom Hiddleston in Henry IV: Part 1 Photo: BBC
By Ed Cumming8:00AM BST 08 Jul 201246

“Two stars keep not their motion in one sphere,” says Hal to Hotspur in their climactic duel at Shrewsbury in Henry IV: Part 1 (BBC Two, Saturday). In the story they make this true for themselves, yet in the all-star second instalment of The Hollow Crown, the BBC’s adaptation of four of Shakespeare’s history plays, an entire constellation rubbed along perfectly happily together. Absolutely everyone was in it: Simon Russell Beale as Falstaff, Jeremy Irons as the King (both more or less beyond criticism), Maxine Peake, Alun Armstrong, Michelle Dockery, Julie Walters.
In that company it seems impolite to single anyone out, but Tom Hiddleston as Hal was superb. Though he’s becoming better known for megabudget Hollywood parts in Thor and Avengers Assemble, Hiddleston has Shakespearean credentials too. In Othello at the Donmar in 2007, he managed to make Cassio the most interesting part: which is no mean feat. Like Branagh, he has the gift of reserve, of holding back until it is absolutely impossible for him not to,
at which point he floods out of himself. Ideal for Hal. The older actor has been something of a mentor to the younger: casting him in Thor, and acting with him in the Donmar’s Ivanov. And they first worked together on Wallander: Hiddleston appeared as detective Martinsson in the first two series.
With Shakespeare on television there is really only one choice to make: either take a big risk and do something strange, or go straight at the material. Though the BBC will plead that it’s part of a season of helping us understand Shakespeare afresh, this was the latter variety; a traditional close representation of the text. It offered one of our best directors (Richard Eyre), with a big budget (or biggish – the climactic battle inevitably looked anaemic) and some great actors. With a play as immaculate as Henry IV: Part 1, you don’t need much else: the words do the heavy lifting. So it proved. If the two remaining instalments keep it up, The Hollow Crown will finish near the top of the all-time televised Shakespeare heap.

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