A Waste of Shame: The Mystery of Shakespeare and His Sonnets (2005) (TV)

Director:

John McKay

Writer:

William Boyd (screenplay)

Release Date:

6 May 2006 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

A mystery in Shakespeare's sonnets is explored. |

Plot Keywords:

Title Based On Shakespeare

Cast

Rupert Graves	...	William Shakespeare
Tom Sturridge	...	William Herbert
Indira Varma	...	Lucie ("the Dark Lady")
Zoë Wanamaker	...	Countess of Pembroke
Anna Chancellor	...	Anne Hathaway
Andrew Tiernan	...	Ben Jonson
Nicky Henson	...	John Shakespeare
Alan Williams	...	George Wilkins
Nicholas Rowe	...	Richard Burbage
John Voce	...	William Kemp
Tom Hiddleston	...	John Hall
Christopher Fairbank	...	Physician
Ian Hughes	...	Thomas Thorpe
Clem Tibber	...	Hamnet Shakespeare
Tom Mison	...	Young Blood
Lucy Brooks	...	Drab
Josh Cole	...	Man Kicking Drab
Mark Bagnall	...	Pembroke's Servant
Camilla Arfwedson	...	Lucie's Maid
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
James Fiddy	...	Servant
Michelle Finch	...	House Maid
Rasmus Hardiker	...	Ned Bounty
Joanne McCallin	...	Street Hoare
Nigel Martin Davey	...	The Market Seller (uncredited)

Directed by
John McKay

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
William Boyd		screenplay

Produced by
Angie Daniell	....	line producer
Ben Evans	....	development producer
Richard Fell	....	executive producer
Chrissy Skinns	....	producer
Sally Woodward Gentle	....	executive producer

Original Music by
Kevin Sargent

Cinematography by
Tim Palmer

Film Editing by
Anne Sopel

Casting by
Jill Trevellick

Production Design by
Martyn John

Art Direction by
Nick Blanche

Set Decoration by
Sara Mathers

Costume Design by
Ralph Wheeler-Holes		(as Ralph Holes)

Makeup Department
Lesley Lamont-Fisher	....	hair designer
Lesley Lamont-Fisher	....	makeup designer
Maureen McGill	....	makeup artist
Annie Townsend	....	makeup artist

Production Management
Mark Ellis	....	unit manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Helen Allibone	....	third assistant director
Ben Harrison	....	second assistant director
Alex Rendell	....	first assistant director

Art Department
Bill Brown	....	dressing props
Will Cann	....	stand-by props
Chris Clarke	....	stand-by art director
Danny Clements	....	stand-by props
Lee Hoskins	....	stand-by carpenter
Charlie Johnson	....	props master
Sara Mathers	....	buyer
Hugo Moss	....	graphic designer
Claire Pidgeon	....	assistant buyer
Mike Power	....	dressing props

Sound Department
Antonia Bates	....	supervising dubbing editor
Anna Bertmark	....	assistant sound editor
Clive Copland	....	sound recordist
Richard Davey	....	dubbing mixer
Jack Gillies	....	dubbing editor
James Hamilton	....	foley artist
Jerome McCann	....	boom operator
Jonathan Rimas	....	adr mixer
Jamie Shemeld	....	on-line editor
Jessie Taylor	....	assistant sound re-recording mixer

Special Effects by
Hugh Goodbody	....	special effects
Mark Holt	....	special effects

Camera and Electrical Department
Steve Alcorn	....	camera operator
Jon Beacham	....	focus puller
Andy Bell	....	electrician
Steve Blake	....	gaffer
Warwick Drucker	....	grip
Jon Howard	....	clapper loader
Barry McCullagh	....	electrician
Tom McGinley	....	best boy (as Thomas McGinley)

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Amy Brown	....	costume assistant
Ian Fulcher	....	assistant costume designer
Hannah Wood	....	costume assistant

Editorial Department
Marsha Bramwell	....	assistant editor
Kevin Horsewood	....	colorist

Music Department
Steve Parr	....	music mixer
Steve Parr	....	music recordist

Other crew
Kim Armitage	....	script supervisor daily
Katherine Duncan-Jones	....	academic advisor
Howard Kingston	....	production executive
Richard May	....	location manager
Jamie Mayers	....	production accountant
Jayne Spooner	....	script supervisor
Juliette Woodcock	....	production coordinator

Production Companies

• British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Distributors

• BBC America (2006) (USA) (TV)

Other Companies

• Access Bookings  accommodation
• Clarity Post Production Sound  sound post-production
• Mayflower Studios  adr recording studio

Country:

UK

Language:

English | French

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

USA:TV-14

Company:

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Doesn't Add Up

William Boyd has written some wonderful books and screenplays. I am a bit confused about his intention here. Is he trying to say that the Bard was so disturbed by the death of his son Hamnet that he transferred his affections to William Herbert? In a purely platonic way? Does he see something of the delicate Hamnet in Herbert's feminine good looks? Boyd is walking on eggshells here. He has to play around with the traditional chronology and compress events considerably to have both the young man and the dark lady of the sonnets arrive in Shakespeare's life on practically the same day. Of course, nobody knows for sure what happened, or even if the story told in the sonnets is autobiographical, so Boyd has a perfect right to postulate what he will. But I am disappointed with his treatment. He seems to have thought he was rewriting "Ulysses," with Shakespeare as Leopold Bloom. Here was an opportunity to speculate about the great loves of Shakespeare's life, and Boyd reduces one to a son-surrogate and the other to a working mom. And poor Anne Hathaway is a henpecking shrew. The daughters play no role in this drama. It's also interesting that Boyd exalts Shakespeare to the position of poet-in-residence with the King's Men, without explaining that he also took a hand in the troop's business and acted important roles in his own and others' plays, all the while he was becoming a wealthy landowner in Stratford. This might go a ways toward explaining why the playwright didn't return to live with his family until he was ready to retire. In the film, Boyd would have you believe that everybody he knew was trying to get their favorite cash cow to leave London and effectively retire from the stage.

I also liked a lot of things about "A Waste of Shame," not the least of which was Rupert Graves' dead-on impersonation of the Bard. I also liked seeing the criminally underused Nicholas Rowe as Richard Burbage and Zoe Wanamaker as the Duchesss of Pembroke. It was Wanamaker's father, Sam, who fought to rebuild the Globe Theatre on the south bank of the Thames, where it stands today, as evidenced by its inclusion in this production. The scenes with Ben Jonson and of Shakespeare at the book stalls were also inspired. But Tom Sturridge (as Herbert) looked like a clueless generation X-er in a bad wig, and Shakespeare's attraction to Lucy (the dark Lady) was underdeveloped--what did he see in her, apart from the fact that she was working, as he was, in London in order to support a family in France? I am rating this film as high as I am because William Boyd cannot help but write a literate script, and the acting in this production (with the possible exception of Sturridge) is first-rate. I also like Boyd's use of lines from the sonnets to introduce scenes. But I remain unconvinced by the scriptwriter's major premise, that, rather than take Herbert to bed, Shakespeare only wanted to be his father.