Season 7 • Episode 1
LatestKing Lear, old and tired, divides his kingdom among his daughters, giving great importance to their protestations of love for him. When Cordelia, youngest and most honest, refuses to idly flatter the old man in return for favor, he banishes her and turns for support to his remaining daughters. But Goneril and Regan have no love for him and instead plot to take all his power from him. In a parallel, Lear's loyal courtier Gloucester favors his illegitimate son Edmund after being told lies about his faithful son Edgar. Madness and tragedy befall both ill-starred fathers.
Acting
Stage veterans chewing scenery through tiny screens.
Direction
Directors fighting the TV frame to keep theatrical tension.
Production
BBC throwing budget at risky, uncommercial drama.
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Performance arrived when UK theater was hemorrhaging audiences—public television as patron of last resort.
Ian McKellen's episode exists because he demanded Shakespeare on television or he'd burn the BBC down. Probably.
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