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The Tragedy of Richard III (1983) (TV)
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Overview
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William Shakespeare (play)
Release Date:
23 January 1983 (UK)
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Plot:
Richard Duke of Gloucester, youngest brother of King Edward IV, will stop at nothing to get the crown...
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Trenchant begins to describe this version...
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Also Known As:
Richard III (UK)
The Complete Dramatic Works of William Shakespeare: The Tragedy of Richard the Third (USA) (video title)
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The Complete Dramatic Works of William Shakespeare: The Tragedy of Richard the Third (USA) (video title)
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Referenced in "Extras: Ross Kemp (#1.2)" (2005)
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I'm fairly sure that many educated and interested-in-film folk have seen the superb and terrifying McKellen version, but sadly, I'd bet hardly anyone remembers this version, which in the original was the capstone of the cycle of plays that begins with Richard II and continues through the various Henry plays (six of 'em). The series was cast as a whole, and the list of actors is a who's-who of British acting skill, culminating in this horrorshow of a play. From the opening moments, when the camera pulls back from the last frame of Henry VI, Part III to reveal a small blackboard, onto which a disembodied hand scrawls Richard III in chalk, to the final frame, where Margaret sits, cackling hysterically atop a pile of bodies (all the characters killed in the preceding eight plays), this version assaults you and tests your ability to withstand true, and intentional villainy, as personified in the demonic Richard. See this version...plague the BBC with letters asking for it to be reissued...write to the actors and shower them with adulation..whatever it takes to return this play to the public eye, where it richardly belongs. Cheers!