Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (1980) (TV)

Director:

Rodney Bennett

Writer:

William Shakespeare (play)

Release Date:

10 November 1980 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Hamlet comes home from university to find his uncle married to his mother, and his father's ghost haunting the battlements and scaring the watch...

Plot Keywords:

William Shakespeare | Shakespeare's Hamlet | Based On Play | Character Name In Title

Cast

Derek Jacobi	...	Hamlet
Claire Bloom	...	Gertrude
Patrick Stewart	...	Claudius
Eric Porter	...	Polonius
Lalla Ward	...	Ophelia
David Robb	...	Laertes
Patrick Allen	...	Ghost of Hamlet's Father
Robert Swann	...	Horatio
Jonathan Hyde	...	Rosencrantz
Geoffrey Bateman	...	Guildenstern
Emrys James	...	First Player (King)
Jason Kemp	...	Second Player (Queen)
Geoffrey Beevers	...	Third Player (Lucianus)
Bill Homewood	...	Player in the mime, King
Peter Richard	...	Player in the mime, Queen
Terence McGinity	...	Player in the mime, Murderer
Peter Burroughs	...	Player
Stuart Fell	...	Player
Ian Charleson	...	Fortinbras
Tim Wylton	...	First Gravedigger
Peter Benson	...	Second Gravedigger
Paul Humpoletz	...	Marcellus
Niall Padden	...	Bernardo
Christopher Baines	...	Francisco
John Humphry	...	Voltimand
John Sterland	...	Cornelius
Peter Gale	...	Osric
Raymond Mason	...	Reynaldo
Dan Meaden	...	Norwegian Captain
Iain Blair	...	Sailor
Reginald Jessup	...	Messenger
Michael Poole	...	Priest
David Henry	...	English Ambassador

Directed by
Rodney Bennett

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
William Shakespeare		play "Hamlet"

Produced by
Cedric Messina	....	producer

Original Music by
Dudley Simpson

Film Editing by
Dave Hillier

Production Design by
Don Homfray

Costume Design by
Barbara Kronig

Makeup Department
Pam Meager	....	makeup artist

Production Management
Fraser Lowden	....	unit production manager

Sound Department
Chick Anthony	....	sound

Stunts
B.H. Barry	....	fight arranger

Camera and Electrical Department
Jim Atkinson	....	senior camera operator
Sam Barclay	....	lighting technician

Editorial Department
Shirley Coward	....	vision mixer

Music Department
William Walton	....	composer: title music

Other crew
Jeremy Ancock	....	production assistant
Steve Finn	....	assistant floor manager
Jill Reeves	....	assistant to director
Alan Shallcross	....	script editor
Anthony E. Smith	....	assistant floor manager
John Wilders	....	literary consultant

Production Companies

• British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
• Time-Life Television Productions Inc.

Distributors

• Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) (1980) (USA) (TV)

Also Known As:

Hamlet
The Complete Dramatic Works of William Shakespeare: Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (USA) (video title)

Runtime:

USA:210 min

Country:

UK | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Company:

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Trivia:

Derek Jacobi, who plays Hamlet, was Claudius in Kenneth Branagh's version of Hamlet (1996).

Movie Connections:

Version of Hamlet (1964/II) (TV)

In Many Ways the Best

No one production of "Hamlet" can completely satisfy except for the one that plays in your head as you read the play, but this is the extant version that comes closest for me (with one glaring exception).

Derek Jacobi is probably the best actor that I've seen play the role, although he's brittle and snappish in places (his first exchanges with Claudius and Gertrude, his comments to Polonius during the 'Rugged Pyrrhus' speech) where I think a mellower touch is called for. But on the whole it's a wonderful performance, and since Hamlet has almost half the lines in the whole play Jacobi himself is enough to strongly recommend the whole.

This Polonius is better than most, although not as funny as Hume Cronyn was. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are well played, straddling the difficult line between being friends to Hamlet and scoring points with the King. A fine, fiery Laertes, and an Ophelia that's no worse than any others (I've yet to see Ophelia played the way I feel she ought to be). Gertrude was adequate (I've also yet to see a compelling Gertrude, but I don't particularly know what I would suggest). It's also too bad that nobody seems to put any sense of spectacle into the Ghost's appearance any more; the Olivier film and the Burton stage production both give it an unworldliness that the Jacobi, Kline, Gibson and Hawk versions lack (although if I remember correctly Brian Blessed was well-used in the Brannagh film)...

The big drawback to this version is in the casting of Patrick Stewart as Claudius. The fault is not in his performance, which is worthy, but in the man himself. Granted, Claudius may not be as much of a toad as Hamlet thinks him to be, but his "natural gifts" should be poor compared to his murdered brother's. Stewart in fact HAS "the front of Jove himself; An eye like Mars, to threaten and command," which Claudius pointedly lacks. In short, Stewart is just too REGAL to play Claudius, the "king of shreds and patches". (And it's not just the father-and-son Hamlets that consider Claudius visibly inferior; Gertrude herself, when Hamlet makes her confront the two pictures, sees black and grained spots on her soul at the comparison.)

All in all, though, it's an excellent production.