Shakespeare: The Animated Tales (also known as The Animated Shakespeare) comprised two six-part television

Television

Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 series, first broadcast in 1992 and 1994. Each episode was an animated

Animation

Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...

 half-hour adaptation of one of Shakespeare's plays.

The series was commissioned by BBC Wales

BBC Wales

BBC Cymru Wales is a division of the British Broadcasting Corporation for Wales. Based at Broadcasting House in the Llandaff area of Cardiff, it directly employs over 1200 people, and produces a broad range of television, radio and online services in both the Welsh and English languages.Outside...

 for the Welsh language

Welsh language

Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...

 channel S4C

S4C

S4C , currently branded as S4/C, is a Welsh television channel broadcast from the capital, Cardiff. The first television channel to be aimed specifically at a Welsh-speaking audience, it is the fifth oldest British television channel .The channel - initially broadcast on...

 (although it was commissioned in English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

). Production was co-ordinated by the Dave Edwards Studio in Cardiff

Cardiff

Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...

, and executed by well-known Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

n directors

Television director

A television director directs the activities involved in making a television program and is part of a television crew.-Duties:The duties of a television director vary depending on whether the production is live or recorded to video tape or video server .In both types of productions, the...

 and animators in Moscow

Moscow

Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

. The scripts were written by children's author Leon Garfield

Leon Garfield

Leon Garfield was a British writer of fiction. He is best known for his historical novels for children, though he also wrote for adults...

, using mainly Shakespearian language. The academic consultant was professor Stanley Wells

Stanley Wells

Stanley William Wells, CBE, is a Shakespeare scholar and Chairman of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.Wells took his first degree at University College, London, and was awarded an honorary DLitt by the University of Warwick in 2008...

.

For the English-language version, the productions generally used British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 actors for the voices, including Hugh Grant

Hugh Grant

Hugh John Mungo Grant is an English actor and film producer. He has received a Golden Globe Award, a BAFTA, and an Honorary César. His films have earned more than $2.4 billion from 25 theatrical releases worldwide. Grant achieved international stardom after appearing in Richard Curtis's...

. A Russian dubbing was recorded afterwards. After the success of the first series, the voice actors in the second series tended to be "bigger names".

The series was noted for its wide range of animation techniques. The animation was done completely in Moscow

Moscow

Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

 at Christmasfilms Studio, by a selection of Russia's most renowned animators. Other animated adaptations produced by the same team include Operavox (1995) and The Canterbury Tales (1998–2000).

In the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, the series aired on HBO and was hosted by Robin Williams

Robin Williams

Robin McLaurin Williams is an American actor and comedian. Rising to fame with his role as the alien Mork in the TV series Mork and Mindy, and later stand-up comedy work, Williams has performed in many feature films since 1980. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance...

.

Documentary (BBC2, 2 November 1992)

• Animating Shakespeare — half-hour "making-of" documentary

Series 1 (BBC2, 9 November–14 December 1992)

• A Midsummer Night's Dream
  A Midsummer Night's Dream
  A Midsummer Night's Dream is a play that was written by William Shakespeare. It is believed to have been written between 1590 and 1596. It portrays the events surrounding the marriage of the Duke of Athens, Theseus, and the Queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta...
  
  — dir. Robert Sahakyants
  Robert Sahakyants
  Robert Sahakyants ) was a Soviet and Armenian animator.-References:*...
  
  
  • Daniel Massey
    Daniel Massey (actor)
    Daniel Raymond Massey was an English actor and performer. He is possibly best known for his starring role in the British TV drama The Roads to Freedom, as Daniel, alongside Michael Bryant...
    
    : Oberon
    Oberon
    Oberon is a legendary king of the fairies.Oberon may also refer to:-People:* Merle Oberon , British actress* Oberon Zell-Ravenheart , Neopagan activist-Media and entertainment:* Oberon...
    
    
  • Bernard Hill
    Bernard Hill
    Bernard Hill is a British actor of film, stage and television. In a career spanning thirty years, he is best known for playing Yosser Hughes, the troubled 'hard man' whose life is falling apart in Alan Bleasdale's groundbreaking 1980s TV drama, Boys from the Blackstuff...
    
    : Nick Bottom
    Nick Bottom
    Nick Bottom is a character in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream who provides comic relief throughout the play, and is famously known for getting his head transformed into that of an ass by the elusive Puck within the play.- Overview :...
    
    
  • Peter Postlethwaite: Quince.
  • Menna Trussler: Narrator
  • Suzanne Bertish
    Suzanne Bertish
    Suzanne C. Bertish is an English actress.A former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, Bertish has appeared in many productions with them, including their marathon eight-and-a-half hour version of Charles Dickens's The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, in which she played three roles...
    
    : Titania
  • Anthony Jackson
    Anthony Jackson (actor)
    Anthony Thomas Jackson was an English actor, who reached his widest audiences as founder of the eponymous ghost hiring agency in the long-running BBC children's comedy series Rentaghost. Jackson began his career with the Birmingham Repertory. He studied at Rose Bruford College and won the BBC...
    
    : Puck
    Puck (Shakespeare)
    Puck, also known as Robin Goodfellow, is a character in William Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream that was based on the ancient figure in English mythology, also called Puck. Puck is a clever and mischievous elf and personifies the trickster or the wise knave...
    
    
  • Abigail McKern
    Abigail McKern
    Abigail McKern is an English actress who appeared, alongside her father Leo, in the last three series of Rumpole of the Bailey, as his younger colleague Liz Probert. She has played many other roles on stage and screen.-Notes:...
    
    : Hermia
  • Kim Wall
    Kim Wall
    Kim Wall is an American Actress. She is probably best known for starring in the 1988 sequel Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland.-Career:...
    
    : Lysander
  • Kathryn Pogson
    Kathryn Pogson
    Kathryn Pogson is a film and stage actress. She appeared in Terry Gilliam's 1985 cult film Brazil. She received a Drama Desk Award nomination for her performance in the 1986 New York production of Aunt Dan and Lemon....
    
    : Helena
  • Charles Millham: Demetrius
  • Anna Linstrum and Lorraine Cole: Fairies

• The Tempest
  The Tempest
  The Tempest is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1610–11, and thought by many critics to be the last play that Shakespeare wrote alone. It is set on a remote island, where Prospero, the exiled Duke of Milan, plots to restore his daughter Miranda to her rightful place,...
  
  — dir. Stanislav Sokolov
  Stanislav Sokolov
  Stanislav Mihaylovich Sokolov is a Russian stop-motion animation director. He graduated from VGIK in 1971 and has since then worked with Studios Soyuzmultfilm, DEFA, Christmasfilms and S4C. He was awarded a number of prizes for his films, most notably an Emmy in 1992 for his contribution to The...
  
  
  • Timothy West
    Timothy West
    Timothy Lancaster West, CBE is an English film, stage and television actor.-Career:West's craggy looks ensured a career as a character actor rather than a leading man. He began his career as an Assistant Stage Manager at the Wimbledon Theatre in 1956, and followed this with several seasons of...
    
    : Prospero
    Prospero
    Prospero is the protagonist in The Tempest, a play by William Shakespeare.- The Tempest :Prospero is the rightful Duke of Milan, who was put to sea on "a rotten carcass of a butt [boat]" to die by his usurping brother, Antonio, twelve years before the play begins. Prospero and Miranda survived,...
    
    
  • Alun Armstrong
    Alun Armstrong (actor)
    Alun Armstrong is a prolific British character actor. Armstrong grew up in County Durham in North East England. He first became interested in acting through Shakespeare productions at his grammar school. Since his career began in the early 1970s, he has played, in his words, "the full spectrum of...
    
    : Caliban
  • Martin Jarvis: The Narrator
  • Ella Mood: Ariel
  • Katy Behean: Miranda
  • Jonathan Tafler: Ferdinand
  • John Moffatt
    John Moffatt (actor)
    John Moffatt is an English actor and playwright, perhaps best known for his portrayal of Hercule Poirot on BBC Radio....
    
    : Alonzo
  • James Greene: Gonzalo
  • Sion Probert: Sebastian
  • Peter Guinness
    Peter Guinness (actor)
    Peter Guinness is a British film, television and theatre actor.-Career:He has appeared in over fifty television productions and over ten films...
    
    : Antonio
  • Ric Jerrom: Trinculo
  • Stephen Thorne
    Stephen Thorne
    Stephen Thorne is a British actor of radio, film, stage and television.He trained at the and after a time in weekly rep. he played several seasons with the Old Vic Company and the RSC in Stratford and London including a tour to Russia...
    
    : Stephano

• Macbeth
  Macbeth
  The Tragedy of Macbeth is a play by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607...
  
  — dir. Nikolai Serebryakov
  • Brian Cox: Macbeth
    Macbeth
    The Tragedy of Macbeth is a play by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607...
    
    
  • Zoë Wanamaker
    Zoe Wanamaker
    Zoë Wanamaker, CBE is an American-British actress. She has performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company; in films, including the Harry Potter series; and in a number of television productions, including a long-time role as Susan Harper in the sitcom My Family.-Early life and family:Wanamaker was...
    
    : Lady Macbeth
    Lady Macbeth
    Lady Macbeth may refer to:*Lady Macbeth, from William Shakespeare's play Macbeth**Queen Gruoch of Scotland, the real-life Queen on whom Shakespeare based the character...
    
    .
  • Alec McCowen
    Alec McCowen
    Alexander Duncan "Alec" McCowen CBE is an English actor. He is known for his work in numerous film and stage productions. He was awarded the CBE in the 1985 New Year's Honours List.-Personal:...
    
    : Narrator
  • Laurence Payne
    Laurence Payne
    Laurence Payne was an English actor and novelist.-Early life:Laurence Stanley Payne was born in London. His father died when he was three years old, and he and his elder brother and sister were brought up in by their mother, a Wesleyan Methodist in Wood Green, London...
    
    : Duncan
  • Patrick Brennan
    Patrick Brennan
    Patrick Brennan may refer to:*Patrick Brennan , Irish politician, TD 1921–1923, Assistant Commissioner of the Gárda Síochána* Paudge Brennan , Irish Fianna Fáil TD and Senator...
    
    : Banquo
    Banquo
    Banquo is a character in William Shakespeare's 1606 play Macbeth. In the play, he is at first an ally to Macbeth and they are together when they meet the Three Witches. After prophesying that Macbeth will become king, the witches tell Banquo that he will not be king himself, but that his...
    
    
  • Clive Merrison
    Clive Merrison
    Clive Merrison is a Welsh actor of film, television, stage and radio. He trained at Rose Bruford College.- Television :...
    
    : MacDuff
  • Mary Wimbush
    Mary Wimbush
    Mary Wimbush was an English actress, whose career spanned sixty years from the 1940s to the 2000s...
    
    , Val Lonsaine and Emma Gregory: The witches
  • David Acton: Malcolm
  • Richard Pearce: Donalbain
  • John Baddeley
    John Baddeley (actor)
    Edward John Baddeley is a British actor. Apart from his work in the theatre in the provinces and the West End, he is also notable for his work with the BBC and as voice-over artist...
    
    : Lennox

• Romeo and Juliet
  Romeo and Juliet
  Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...
  
  — dir. Efim Gamburg
  • Romeo: Linus Roache
    Linus Roache
    Linus William Roache is an English actor.-Early life:Roache was born in Manchester, the son of Coronation Street actor William Roache and actress Anna Cropper. Roache was educated at Bishop Luffa Church of England School in Chichester, West Sussex and at the independent Rydal School in Colwyn Bay,...
    
    
  • Juliet: Clare Holman
    Clare Holman
    Clare Margaret Holman is an English actress, perhaps most famous for her role of forensic pathologist Dr. Laura Hobson in the television series Inspector Morse and Lewis.-Acting:...
    
    
  • Benvolio: Jonathan Cullen
    Jonathan Cullen
    -Personal life:Born in Newcastle upon Tyne, England in 1960, Cullen was son to Tony Cullen, a founding member of the Northern Sinfonia. He was educated at the Royal Grammar School, Newcastle, and went on to take a French and Philosophy degree at New College, Oxford...
    
    
  • Narrator: Felicity Kendal
    Felicity Kendal
    Felicity Ann Kendal, CBE is an English actor known for her television and stage work.Born in 1946, Kendal spent much of her childhood in India, where her father managed a touring repertory company. First appearing on stage at the age of nine months, Kendal appeared in her first film, Shakespeare...
    
    
  • Nurse: Brenda Bruce
    Brenda Bruce
    Brenda Bruce was a British actress. She had a long and successful career in the theatre, radio, film, and television.-Early life:Brenda Bruce was born in Manchester...
    
    
  • Mercutio/Prince Scalus: Greg Hicks
    Greg Hicks
    Greg Hicks is an English actor. He completed theatrical training at Rose Bruford College and has been a member of The Royal Shakespeare Company since 1976...
    
    
  • Tybaldo: Brendan Charlson
  • Fray Laurence/Fray John: Gerald Green
    Gerald Green
    Gerald Green, Jr. is an American professional basketball player who currently plays for the Foshan Dralions of the CBA. He was selected by the National Basketball Association's Boston Celtics with the 18th pick of the first round in the 2005 NBA Draft...
    
    
  • Mr. Capuletus/Mr. Montescus: Charles Kay
    Charles Kay
    Charles Kay is an English actor.Kay was born in Coventry, West Midlands, the son of Frances and Charles Beckingham Piff....
    
    
  • Lady Capuletus/Lady Montescus: Maggie Steed
    Maggie Steed
    Maggie Steed is an English actress and comedienne.-Youth:After studying drama at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in Bristol, she left the theatre for several years.-Career:...
    
    

• Hamlet
  Hamlet
  The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
  
  — dir. Natalya Orlova
  • Nicholas Farrell
    Nicholas Farrell
    Nicholas Farrell is an English stage, film and television actor. His early screen career included the role of Aubrey Montague in the 1981 film Chariots of Fire. In 1983, he starred as Edmund Bertram in a television adaptation of the Jane Austen novel, Mansfield Park...
    
    : Hamlet
  • John Shrapnel
    John Shrapnel
    John Shrapnel is an English actor.Shrapnel was born in Birmingham, Warwickshire, the son of Mary Lillian Myfanwy and journalist/author Norman Shrapnel....
    
    : Claudius/The King
  • Tilda Swinton
    Tilda Swinton
    Katherine Mathilda "Tilda" Swinton is a British actress known for both arthouse and mainstream films. She has appeared in a number of films including The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Burn After Reading, The Beach, We Need to Talk About Kevin and was nominated for a Golden Globe for her...
    
    :Ophelia.
  • Michael Kitchen
    Michael Kitchen
    Michael Kitchen is an English actor and television producer, best known for his starring role as DCS Foyle in the British TV series Foyle's War.-Early life:...
    
    : Narrator
  • Susan Fleetwood
    Susan Fleetwood
    Susan Maureen Fleetwood was a British stage, film and television actress, best known as a star of the classical theatre companies of England. She received popular acclaim in the television series Chandler & Co and The Buddha of Suburbia.-Personal life:Fleetwood was born in St...
    
    : Gertrude
  • John Warner
    John Warner
    John William Warner, KBE is an American Republican politician who served as Secretary of the Navy from 1972 to 1974 and as a five-term United States Senator from Virginia from January 2, 1979, to January 3, 2009...
    
    : Polonius
  • Andrew Wincott: Laertes
  • Dorien Thomas: Horatio

• Twelfth Night — dir. Mariya Muat
  • Rosemary Leach
    Rosemary Leach
    Rosemary Leach is a British stage, television and film actress.She was born at Much Wenlock, Shropshire. Her parents were teachers related to Edmund Leach. She attended grammar school and RADA...
    
    : Narrator
  • Fiona Shaw
    Fiona Shaw
    Fiona Shaw, CBE is an Irish actress and theatre director. Although to international audiences she is probably most familiar for her minor role as Petunia Dursley in the Harry Potter films, she is an accomplished classical actress...
    
    : Viola
    Viola
    The viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.- Form :The viola is similar in material and construction to the violin. A full-size viola's body is between and longer than the body of a full-size violin , with an average...
    
    
  • Roger Allam
    Roger Allam
    Roger Allam is an English actor, known primarily for his stage career, although he has performed in film and television. He played Inspector Javert in the original London production of the stage musical Les Misérables....
    
    : Orsino
  • Suzanne Burden
    Suzanne Burden
    Suzanne Burden is a British actress.A graduate of RADA, she has appeared on television, and occasionally in films, since the early 1980s. Her best known television work is probably as Esther Summerson in Bleak House...
    
    : Olivia
  • Gerald James
    Gerald James
    Gerald James was a British actor best known for his character actor roles in British television productions such as The Sandbaggers, The Professionals, Secret Army, Sapphire and Steel and The Pickwick Papers. He also appeared on stage with the Royal Shakespeare Company.-External links:...
    
    : Malvolio
    Malvolio
    Malvolio is the steward of Olivia's household in William Shakespeare's comedy, Twelfth Night, or What You Will.-Style:Malvolio's ethical values are commonly used to define his appearance.In the play, Malvolio is defined as a "kind of" Puritan...
    
    
  • William Rushton
    William Rushton
    William Rushton may refer to:* W. A. H. Rushton British physiologist* Willie Rushton , British comedian...
    
    : Sir Toby Belch
  • Stephen Tompkinson
    Stephen Tompkinson
    Stephen Tompkinson is a British actor. He is best known for his work in comedy and drama productions such as Drop the Dead Donkey, Ballykissangel, Grafters, In Deep, Wild at Heart and DCI Banks....
    
    : Sir Andrew Aguecheek
  • Alice Arnold
    Alice Arnold
    Alice Arnold is a British newsreader and continuity announcer on BBC Radio 4.After gaining a degree in politics at the University of Sussex, she trained as an actress and was a magistrate for ten years....
    
    : Maria
  • Stefan Bednarczyk: Feste
  • Hugh Grant
    Hugh Grant
    Hugh John Mungo Grant is an English actor and film producer. He has received a Golden Globe Award, a BAFTA, and an Honorary César. His films have earned more than $2.4 billion from 25 theatrical releases worldwide. Grant achieved international stardom after appearing in Richard Curtis's...
    
    : Sebastian

Series 2 (BBC2, 2 November–14 December 1994)

• King Richard III
  Richard III (play)
  Richard III is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1591. It depicts the Machiavellian rise to power and subsequent short reign of Richard III of England. The play is grouped among the histories in the First Folio and is most often classified...
  
  — dir. Natalya Orlova
  • Antony Sher
    Antony Sher
    Sir Antony Sher, KBE is a double Olivier Award winning South African-born British actor, writer, theatre director and painter.- Early years :...
    
    : Richard III
    Richard III of England
    Richard III was King of England for two years, from 1483 until his death in 1485 during the Battle of Bosworth Field. He was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty...
    
    
  • Alec McCowen
    Alec McCowen
    Alexander Duncan "Alec" McCowen CBE is an English actor. He is known for his work in numerous film and stage productions. He was awarded the CBE in the 1985 New Year's Honours List.-Personal:...
    
    : The Narrator
  • Eleanor Bron
    Eleanor Bron
    Eleanor Bron is an English stage, film and television actress and author.-Early life and family:Bron was born in 1938 in Stanmore, Middlesex, to a Jewish family of Eastern European origin...
    
    : Duchess of York
  • Tom Wilkinson
    Tom Wilkinson
    Thomas Geoffrey "Tom" Wilkinson, OBE is a British actor. He has twice been nominated for an Academy Award for his roles in In the Bedroom and Michael Clayton...
    
    : Duke of Buckingham
    Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham
    Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, KG played a major role in Richard III of England's rise and fall. He is also one of the primary suspects in the disappearance of the Princes in the Tower...
    
    
  • James Grout
    James Grout
    James Grout is an English actor of radio and television.Grout was born in London, the son of Beatrice Anne and William Grout...
    
    : Catesby
    William Catesby
    William Catesby, esq. was one of Richard III of England's principal councillors. He also served as Chancellor of the Exchequer and Speaker of the House of Commons during Richard's reign....
    
    / Bishop of Ely
  • Sorcha Cusack
    Sorcha Cusack
    Sorcha Cusack Born in Dublin on 9 April 1949, She has made many film and television appearances including The Bill, Casualty , the 1973 BBC adaptation of Jane Eyre and the worldwide hit movie Snatch as the traveller mother of Mickey played by Brad Pitt...
    
    : Queen Elizabeth
    Elizabeth Woodville
    Elizabeth Woodville was Queen consort of England as the spouse of King Edward IV from 1464 until his death in 1483. Elizabeth was a key figure in the series of dynastic civil wars known as the Wars of the Roses. Her first husband, Sir John Grey of Groby was killed at the Second Battle of St Albans...
    
    
  • Suzanne Burden
    Suzanne Burden
    Suzanne Burden is a British actress.A graduate of RADA, she has appeared on television, and occasionally in films, since the early 1980s. Her best known television work is probably as Esther Summerson in Bleak House...
    
    : Anne
    Anne Neville
    Lady Anne Neville was Princess of Wales as the wife of Edward of Westminster and Queen of England as the consort of King Richard III. She held the latter title for less than two years, from 26 June 1483 until her death in March 1485...
    
    
  • Stephen Thorne
    Stephen Thorne
    Stephen Thorne is a British actor of radio, film, stage and television.He trained at the and after a time in weekly rep. he played several seasons with the Old Vic Company and the RSC in Stratford and London including a tour to Russia...
    
    : Lord Hastings
    William Hastings, 1st Baron Hastings
    William Hastings, 1st Baron Hastings KG was an English nobleman. A follower of the House of York, he became a close friend and the most important courtier of King Edward IV, whom he served as Lord Chamberlain...
    
    / Cardinal Bourchier
    Thomas Bourchier
    Thomas Bourchier was an English archbishop, Lord Chancellor and cardinal.-Life:Bourchier was a younger son of William Bourchier, 1st Count of Eu , and through his mother, Anne of Gloucester, a daughter of Thomas of Woodstock, was a grandson of King Edward III of England. One of his brothers was...
    
    
  • Michael Maloney
    Michael Maloney
    Michael Maloney is an English actor.Born in Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, Maloney's first television appearance was as Peter Barkworth's teenage son in the 1979 drama series, Telford's Change....
    
    : George, Duke of Clarence/Norfolk
    John Howard, 1st Duke of Norfolk
    John Howard, 1st Duke of Norfolk, KG, Earl Marshal was an English nobleman, soldier, and the first Howard Duke of Norfolk...
    
    
  • Spike Hood: Prince Edward
    Edward V of England
    Edward V was King of England from 9 April 1483 until his deposition two months later. His reign was dominated by the influence of his uncle Richard, Duke of Gloucester, who succeeded him as Richard III...
    
    
  • Hywel Nelson: Duke of York
    Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York
    Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York, 1st Duke of Norfolk, 1st Earl of Norfolk, Earl Marshal was the sixth child and second son of King Edward IV of England and Elizabeth Woodville. He was born in Shrewsbury....
    
    
  • Patrick Brennan
    Patrick Brennan
    Patrick Brennan may refer to:*Patrick Brennan , Irish politician, TD 1921–1923, Assistant Commissioner of the Gárda Síochána* Paudge Brennan , Irish Fianna Fáil TD and Senator...
    
    : Richmond
    Henry VII of England
    Henry VII was King of England and Lord of Ireland from his seizing the crown on 22 August 1485 until his death on 21 April 1509, as the first monarch of the House of Tudor....
    
    /2nd Murderer
  • Philip Bond
    Philip Bond
    Philip J. Bond is a British comic book artist, who first came to prominence in the late 1980s on Deadline magazine, and later through a number of collaborations with British writers for the DC Comics imprint Vertigo....
    
    : Tyrrel
  • Brendan Charleson: 1st Murderer/ Messenger

• The Taming of the Shrew
  The Taming of the Shrew
  The Taming of the Shrew is a comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1590 and 1591.The play begins with a framing device, often referred to as the Induction, in which a mischievous nobleman tricks a drunken tinker named Sly into believing he is actually a nobleman himself...
  
  — dir. Aida Ziablikova
  • Amanda Root
    Amanda Root
    Amanda Root is an English stage and screen actor and a former voice actor for children's programmes.Root known for her starring role in the 1995 BBC film adaptation of Jane Austen's Persuasion and the British TV comedy All About Me, as Miranda, alongside Richard Lumsden in 2004 and when she was a...
    
    : Kate
    Kate (The Taming of the Shrew)
    Katherina Minola is a fictional character and the female romantic lead in the comedy The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare. Kate is the elder outspoken daughter of Baptista Minola and the sister of apparently sweet-tempered Bianca...
    
    
  • Nigel Le Vaillant
    Nigel Le Vaillant
    Nigel Le Vaillant is a British actor, best known for his roles in Casualty and Dangerfield.-Early years:Le Vaillant came to the UK aged 16. He studied acting at school in Dorset. Playwright Alan Ayckbourn asked if he would work as an assistant stage manager in a Scarborough Theatre production...
    
    : Petruchio
    Petruchio
    Petruchio is the male romantic lead in Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew . Petruchio is a fortune seeker who enters into a marriage with a strong-willed young woman named Kate and then proceeds to "tame" her temperamental spirit...
    
    
  • Malcolm Storry: Nathaniel/Sly
  • Manon Edwards: Bianca
  • Gerald James
    Gerald James
    Gerald James was a British actor best known for his character actor roles in British television productions such as The Sandbaggers, The Professionals, Secret Army, Sapphire and Steel and The Pickwick Papers. He also appeared on stage with the Royal Shakespeare Company.-External links:...
    
    : Baptista
  • Lawmary Champion: Hostess/Widow
  • Hilton McRae
    Hilton McRae
    Hilton McRae is a Scottish actor in the fields of theatre, television and film.-Career:McRae was part of the radical theatre group 7:84 before graduating from Edinburgh University, and by 1977 he had joined the Royal Shakespeare Company. His most mainstream American film was his role as Green...
    
    : Hortensio/Peter
  • Richard Pearce
    Richard Pearce
    Richard Pearce is an American film director and producer.He prepped at St. Paul's School and then earned a B.A., English from Yale University in the Class of 1965. While in college, he was a guitarist for, and a leader of, the Augmented Seven, a singing group that featured three guitarists...
    
    : Lucentio
  • Big Mick
    Big Mick
    "Big" Mick Hughes is the live audio engineer for Metallica, a position he has held since 1984.He was born in 1960 and grew up in Birmingham, England. While an apprentice at British Steel, he studied electronics at a local technical college and also gained experience on the thriving Midlands music...
    
    : The Narrator

• As You Like It
  As You Like It
  As You Like It is a pastoral comedy by William Shakespeare believed to have been written in 1599 or early 1600 and first published in the folio of 1623. The play's first performance is uncertain, though a performance at Wilton House in 1603 has been suggested as a possibility...
  
  — dir. Alexei Karayev
  • Sylvestra Le Touzel
    Sylvestra Le Touzel
    Sylvestra Le Touzel is a British television, film and stage actor who was born on Jersey in the Channel Islands and raised in Kensington, London. She was schooled in East Acton.-TV:...
    
    : Rosalind
  • David Burke: Narrator
  • María Miles: Celia and Audrey
  • Garald Green: Duke Senior and Adam
  • Peter Gunn
    Peter Gunn
    Peter Gunn is an American private eye television series which aired on the NBC and later ABC television networks from 1958 to 1961. The show's creator was Blake Edwards...
    
    : Touchstone
    Touchstone (As You Like It)
    Touchstone is an interesting fictional character in Shakespeare's play As You Like It. Touchstone is the court fool or jester, portrayed as a wise man with a dry, cynical wit. Throughout the play he comments on the other characters of the play and thus, contributes to a better understanding of the...
    
    and The Messenger
  • Nathaniel Parker
    Nathaniel Parker
    Nathaniel Parker is an English actor best known for playing Detective Inspector Thomas "Tommy" Lynley in the BBC crime drama series The Inspector Lynley Mysteries.-Personal life:...
    
    : Oliver and Jacques
  • David Holt: Silvius and Hymen
  • Christopher Benjamín: Duke Frederick and Corin
  • Eiry Thomas: Phoebe
  • Stefan Bernarczyk: Amiens

• Julius Caesar
  Julius Caesar (play)
  The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, also known simply as Julius Caesar, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1599. It portrays the 44 BC conspiracy against...
  
  — dir. Yuri Kulakov
  • Joss Ackland
    Joss Ackland
    Sidney Edmond Jocelyn Ackland CBE , known as Joss Ackland, is an English actor who has appeared in more than 130 films and numerous television roles.-Early life:...
    
    : Julius Caesar
    Gaius Julius Caesar
    Gaius Julius Caesar most commonly refers to:* Gaius Julius Caesar , conqueror of Gaul and Roman dictator.Others with the name include:* Gaius Julius Caesar I, son of Sextus Julius Caesar I...
    
    
  • Hugh Quarshie
    Hugh Quarshie
    - Early and Personal Life :Quarshie is of mixed Ghanaian, English and Dutch ancestry and was born in Accra, Ghana, to Emma Wilhelmina and Richard Quarshie, and emigrated with his family to the United Kingdom when he was aged three...
    
    : Cassius
    Gaius Cassius Longinus
    Gaius Cassius Longinus was a Roman senator, a leading instigator of the plot to kill Julius Caesar, and the brother in-law of Marcus Junius Brutus.-Early life:...
    
    
  • Jim Carter: Mark Anthony
    Mark Antony
    Marcus Antonius , known in English as Mark Antony, was a Roman politician and general. As a military commander and administrator, he was an important supporter and loyal friend of his mother's cousin Julius Caesar...
    
    
  • David Ropp: Brutus
  • Judith Sharp: Portia
    Porcia Catonis
    Porcia Catonis, also known simply as Porcia was a Roman woman who lived in the 1st century BC. She was the daughter of Marcus Porcius Cato Uticencis and his first wife Atilia...
    
    
  • Peter Woodthorpe
    Peter Woodthorpe
    Peter Woodthorpe was an English film, television and voice actor who is best known for supplying the voice of Gollum in the 1978 Bakshi version of The Lord of the Rings and BBC's 1981 radio serial...
    
    : Casca
    Servilius Casca
    Publius Servilius Casca Longus was one of the assassins of Gaius Julius Caesar, who was murdered on 15 March, 44 BC....
    
    
  • Andrew Wincott: The Narrator, Octavius
  • Frances Tomelty
    Frances Tomelty
    Frances Tomelty is a Northern Irish actress and the first wife of Sting. She is the daughter of Belfast actor Joseph Tomelty ....
    
    : Calphurnia
    Calpurnia Pisonis
    Calpurnia Pisonis , daughter of Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus, sister of Lucius Calpurnius Piso, "the Pontifex", was a Roman woman and the third and last wife of Julius Caesar. Calpurnia was the great-granddaughter of a lieutenant of Lucius Cassius Longinus, whose name was Lucius Piso...
    
    
  • Tony Leader: Cinna, Decius
  • Dillewgn Owey: Soothsayer, Trebonius
  • John Miers: Lucius

• The Winter's Tale
  The Winter's Tale
  The Winter's Tale is a play by William Shakespeare, originally published in the First Folio of 1623. Although it was grouped among the comedies, some modern editors have relabelled the play as one of Shakespeare's late romances. Some critics, among them W. W...
  
  — dir. Stanislav Sokolov
  Stanislav Sokolov
  Stanislav Mihaylovich Sokolov is a Russian stop-motion animation director. He graduated from VGIK in 1971 and has since then worked with Studios Soyuzmultfilm, DEFA, Christmasfilms and S4C. He was awarded a number of prizes for his films, most notably an Emmy in 1992 for his contribution to The...
  
  
  • Anton Lesser
    Anton Lesser
    Anton Lesser is a British actor. He attended Moseley Grammar School and the University of Liverpool before going to RADA in 1977 where he was awarded the Bancroft Gold Medal as the most promising actor of his year....
    
    : Leontes
    Leontes
    King Leontes is the father of Perdita and husband to Queen Hermione in Shakespeare's play The Winter's Tale. He becomes obsessed with the belief that his wife has been having an affair with Polixenes, his childhood friend and King of Bohemia. Because of this, he tries to have his friend poisoned,...
    
    
  • Jenny Agutter
    Jenny Agutter
    Jennifer Ann "Jenny" Agutter is an English film and television actress. She began her career as a child actress in the mid 1960s, starring in the BBC television series The Railway Children and the film adaptation of the same book, before moving on to adult roles and relocating to Hollywood.She...
    
    : Hermione
  • Sally Dexter
    Sally Dexter
    Sally Julia Dexter , is an English actress of stage and screen.She was educated at Chiltern Edge School, King James's College at Henley-on-Thames, now The Henley College...
    
    : Paulina
  • Michael Kitchen
    Michael Kitchen
    Michael Kitchen is an English actor and television producer, best known for his starring role as DCS Foyle in the British TV series Foyle's War.-Early life:...
    
    : Polixenes
  • Adrienne O'Sullivan: Perdita
  • Stephen Tompkinson
    Stephen Tompkinson
    Stephen Tompkinson is a British actor. He is best known for his work in comedy and drama productions such as Drop the Dead Donkey, Ballykissangel, Grafters, In Deep, Wild at Heart and DCI Banks....
    
    : Autolycus
  • Philip Voss
    Philip Voss
    Philip Voss is an English stage, radio, film and television actor. He has played small roles since the 1960s, but more notable ones include roles in such as the 1964 Doctor Who serial, Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell, the 1981 Lord of the Rings radio series, Indian Summer, an RSC 1996...
    
    : Shepherd/Judge
  • Simon Harris
    Simon Harris
    Simon Harris , is predominantly known as the owner and founder of the record label Music of Life and writer/producer of most of its extensive catalog of songs, although he is also an influential DJ, award winning producer, remixer of several Grammy Award winning artists and pioneer of electronic...
    
    : Shepherd's Son/Servant
  • Jonathan Tafler: Camillo
  • Timothy Bateson
    Timothy Bateson
    Timothy Dingwall Bateson was a British actor. The son of Dingwall Bateson, a solicitor later knighted, he was educated at Uppingham School and Wadham College, Oxford....
    
    : Antigonus
  • Jonathan Firth
    Jonathan Firth
    Jonathan Firth is a British actor best known for his roles in such noted British television productions as Middlemarch, Far from the Madding Crowd, and Victoria & Albert.-Early life:Jonathan Firth was born in Essex, England...
    
    : Florizel
  • Spike Hood: Shepherd's Young Son
  • Hywel Nelson: Mamillius
  • Roger Allam
    Roger Allam
    Roger Allam is an English actor, known primarily for his stage career, although he has performed in film and television. He played Inspector Javert in the original London production of the stage musical Les Misérables....
    
    : The Narrator

• Othello
  Othello
  The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1603, and based on the Italian short story "Un Capitano Moro" by Cinthio, a disciple of Boccaccio, first published in 1565...
  
  — dir. Nikolai Serebryakov
  • Colin McFarlane
    Colin McFarlane
    Colin McFarlane is an English actor and voice artist. He has appeared in several TV series, including The Fast Show, Judge John Deed, Jonathan Creek, Randall & Hopkirk , Jeeves and Wooster, Black Books and The Thin Blue Line. He is also known for portraying Police Commissioner Gillian B...
    
    : Othello
    Othello
    The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1603, and based on the Italian short story "Un Capitano Moro" by Cinthio, a disciple of Boccaccio, first published in 1565...
    
    
  • Gerard McSorley
    Gerard McSorley
    Gerard McSorley is a theatre, television and an Irish film actor.-Early life:He was born in Omagh, County Tyrone, and after attending a Christian Brothers school in his hometown he attended St. Columb's College in Derry. He then attended Queen's University, Belfast, where he was taught by among...
    
    : Iago
    Iago
    Iago is a fictional character in Shakespeare's Othello . The character's source is traced to Giovanni Battista Giraldi Cinthio's tale "Un Capitano Moro" in Gli Hecatommithi . There, the character is simply "the ensign". Iago is a soldier and Othello's ancient . He is the husband of Emilia,...
    
    
  • Philip Franks
    Philip Franks
    Philip Franks is an English actor and director best known for his roles as tax inspector Cedric "Charley" Charlton in the British sitcom The Darling Buds of May, and Sgt. Raymond Craddock on Heartbeat. He has also made guest appearances in Absolutely Fabulous, Pie in the Sky, Midsomer Murders and...
    
    : Cassio
  • Sian Thomas
    Sian Thomas
    Siân Thomas is an award-winning Welsh actress who trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama.She has appeared on stage, on TV and in films such as Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in which she played Amelia Bones. She also appeared in the classic 1992 Spanish television series...
    
    : Desdemona
  • Dinah Stabb: Emilia/Bianca
  • Terry Dauncey: Brabantio
  • Ivor Roberts
    Ivor Roberts
    Ivor Roberts may refer to:*Ivor Roberts , British actor and television presenter*Ivor Roberts , former British ambassador to Italy, now President of Trinity College, Oxford...
    
    : Duke/Lodovico
  • Simon Ludders: Roderigo
  • Philip Bond
    Philip Bond
    Philip J. Bond is a British comic book artist, who first came to prominence in the late 1980s on Deadline magazine, and later through a number of collaborations with British writers for the DC Comics imprint Vertigo....
    
    : The Narrator