The Shakespeare ReTold series is now being shown on BBC America.

The Taming of the Shrew can be seen on Sunday, August 27, 2006 at 7 PM Eastern, 8:30 PM Pacific Time.

New from Music Videos by Claire -click on the TOS photo below to visit Claire's site.



Thanks, Claire!.

"Shakespeare Retold" DVD (including "The Taming Of The Shrew") release date: December 26, 2005 region 2 only.... preorder now from the BBC and also from Amazon.co.uk.

BBC Drama - Shakespeare
Saturday 12 November 2005

Characters and Actors
featuring a video interview with Rufus   

           
    Cast Photo                                                                                                     
            
                     
   Shirley Henderson (Kate)                       Rufus (Petruchio)   
          

 
                      
   Jaime Murray (Bianca Minola)              Twiggy Lawson (Mrs. Minola)                 Tranio (Frederico Zanni) and Lucentio      David Mitchell

Review: The Herald
A modern twist in an old story will rile the feminists in flat shoes
IAN BELL    
November 22 2005

The Taming of the Shrew BBC1, 8.30pm

My inner curmudgeon, who needs no encouragement, has rebelled recently at the BBC's "based on a couple of words by William Shakespeare" dramas. The Scottish play in a flash caff? Where was the point? How do you contrive the sense of something fundamental in a row – let's not even bother with the pun – over offal? And who would begin to pretend to play stumbling apprentice to the original language?
Willpower, one finds, is hard to come by. "Modernising" Shakespeare is either pointless or, worse, beside the point. At best, you convey a simple message to your audience: you're too stupid to master the original, so have this instead.
The Shrew play, part of a fine old medieval wife-beating tradition, struck me as even more problematic. Cultural relativism is one thing, but how do you pull off the idea that a woman can, could or should
be "tamed" in the 21st of Christian centuries? Grant Petruchio – though Sally Wainwright's script did not – "the prettiest Kate in Christendom". Give him his "super-dainty Kate". But this is about male and female power. How does that work, these days?
It works, in part, when you allow a woman of Wainwright's gifts to write the dialogue. "Kiss me, Kate," Petruchio said, in homage to the musical. "Up yours, weirdo," came the reply from "the Bitch from the Black Lagoon". Shirley Henderson's Katherina was that thing of wonder, a woman who adopted withering scorn as a default position and was never lost for words.
Wainwright, nevertheless, had another trick up her sleeve, a subtle sleight of feet: flat shoes. This Kate was a politician, possibly Tory, who did not so much stalk the corridors of power as stomp them in her quest to become leader of the opposition. She epitomised a modern phenomenon: men may take authority and control for granted; some women, achieving the same sort of position, grow contemptuous, angry and wear dull footwear.
Even the description is sexist. Wainwright, one senses, knew as much. Then again, there is no point in attempting the Shrew in any fashion unless you deal with gender and assigned roles. Why was Kate a loveless and unlovely 38-year-old maniac? Possibly for want of a good man. Possibly because men, taken together, are not much good, most of the time.
Salvaged from Shakespeare was the thought that shrews and their tamers remind us that no partnership survives without mutual respect. This Kate submitted, ultimately, to her dotty, cross-dressing, down-at-heel aristocrat of a husband (a nice piece of work from Rufus Sewell) only because he did not require her submission. It was the last thing he wanted. A thorough-going feminist might quibble over the practical difference, but the conceit carried the film.

           
Thanks, Ukelelehip!

Shakespeare Retold –The Taming Of The Shrew Monday 21 November 8.30pm BBC ONE

One of the Bard ’s best-loved comedies bursts into the 21st century this week as BBC One ’s star-studded version of The Taming Of The Shrew continues the Shakespeare Retold season.  As they square up to one another on screen,stars Shirley Henderson and Rufus Sewell talk to Nicola Hicks about their roles in Sally Wainwright’s spirited adaptation.

Shirley Henderson plays Katherine

Over the last few years we ’ve come to expect big things of petite actress Shirley Henderson and,in BBC One ’s The Taming Of The Shrew ,the striking Scots star does not disappoint. As Sally Wainwright brings the Bard ’s battle-of-the-sexes comedy kicking and screaming into the 21st century, Shirley unleashes a performance that really packs a punch.  Shirley Henderson is always up for a challenge. A rich mix of roles has seen her grapple with Portuguese (Charles II ), play a singing charlady (Yes) and even sport a bristling moustache (Intermission ). But when it came to raising her voice to play sharp-tongued tyrant Katherine Minol  in a modern adaptation of The Taming Of The Shrew, the softly spoken star experienced a twinge of doubt. 

"I loved the script but I was scared of it as well because the character just seemed so huge .I was excited by it but I was nervous of it at the same time," she says.. "I’ve never played anyone who’s so high-powered and able – who speaks so fluently and powerfully – and that doesn ’t necessarily come easily to me.  Her concentration is enormous but she’s also shockingly vicious, and I wasn’t sure how to pull that off."  But it wasn’t long before the elfin-faced star was cranking up the volume and spouting insults that would put Anne Robinson to shame.  "I went home and practised speaking the dialogue out loud to myself to get on top of the sound of her voice and her language.  She goes from very stroppy to almost child-like very quickly, so I had to work on that. It was actually a lot of fun!" she laughs.

Based on one of Shakespeare’s feistiest heroines, Katherine is a wealthy, successful politician, who has her sights set on leading her party. All that stands in her way is her foul temper, which has left her without the one thing her colleagues really want in a leader: a spouse.  "You know it’s bad when the only date in her diary reads ‘Put the bins out ’," chuckles Shirley, 38.  "Her temper and her aggression have left her very lonely.   But there is a reason for the madness and there’s also a sense of humour there.  "She ’s very clever and she gets frustrated easily.  She gets exasperated by people – especially people like her sister and her mother, who are very shallow, very silly and always talking about clothes and men – and so she alienates them and then that makes her more lonely, more frustrated and more angry.  The problem is, no one can get beyond her shell."  But that seems set to change when Katherine meets the eccentric and passionate Petruchio (played by Rufus Sewell), who, much to her chagrin, promptly announces his intention to marry her. "She finally meets her match," explains Shirley. "They’re both horrendous on their own but together they spark and they calm each other down,though it is a bumpy ride …"

The actress was delighted to work with co-star Rufus Sewell again. The pair last appeared together in BBC One’s acclaimed Restoration drama Charles II , in which Rufus played the randy King and Shirley his devoutly Catholic wife. "We work in a similar way and we jump in at the deep end and help each other.   I’m not scared to try things out in front of him and he’s the same with me. He’s a gorgeous, lovely man, full of life and has so much to offer – a real jack--in-a-box," says Shirley, fondly.

The eldest of three sisters, the actress was born and raised in Kincardine, Fife. But though she realised early on that all the world’s a stage, she was never big on the Bard, she says. "I wasn’t brought up going to the theatre and so Shakespeare was really just part of English class. I did like listening to it – one of our teachers used to speak it out loud to us – but I didn ’t know that you got up and acted this stuff out properly. I didn’t understand how exciting it could be." She didn’t fully get to grips with Shakespeare until she enrolled at London’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama in the early Eighties – and even now unselfconsciously declares that she’s "not the biggest fan ".

"I’ve done a bit of Shakespeare, not an awful lot, but I really enjoyed doing this," she says "It’s got the breath of Shakespeare,the same sort of spirit. You need a lot of energy behind the lines because there are huge speeches and a very demanding tempo. You’ve got to keep the ball up in the air and that’s what my  impression of Shakespeare is, too."   Shirley, who got her TV break opposite Robert Carlyle in the BBC ’s Highland drama Hamish Macbeth, has certainly kept the ball up in the air when it comes to her career. As well as delivering consistently strong performances on stage and television, she has appeared in some of Britain’s biggest blockbusters: the gritty adaptation of Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting, Bridget Jones ’s Diary, in which she plays Renée Zellweger’s mate, Jude, and the Harry Potter films, which saw her give spirited performances as grumpy ghost Moaning Myrtle. The actress – who still lives close to her childhood home in Scotland – will be back on the big screen this autumn in the much-anticipated A Cock And Bull Story, directed by Michael Winterbottom.  She’ll also pop up in Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette, with Kirsten Dunst in the title role, due for release in 2006.  "It’s not a big part but I play one of the princess’s aunts, a very bitchy and slightly desperate woman. She’s only in her thirties but, in the 18th century, that was it – you were classed as over the hill!  On the first day of filming I couldn’t work out why I was wearing a grey wig … and then it clicked," laughs Shirley.. And while we’re on the subject of slightly desperate thirty-something singletons, she’s also keeping an eye on the latest antics of Helen Fielding ’s Bridget Jones, who recently relaunched her diary in The Independent .  "Sally (Phillips ), James (Callis) and I had so much fun making those films – though most of it ended up on the cutting-room floor. We were just like a wee team of pals when we were together," she smiles. "Ooh but wouldn’t it be nice if they made the trilogy..?"   If it means we get to see even more of Shirley on the screen, there’s only one answer to that: in Ms Jones’s immortal words, it would be v.v.good.

Rufus Sewell plays Petruchio

Rufus Sewell’s latest role gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "men in tights ".  BBC One’s The Taming Of The Shrew sees the actor, famous for his smouldering good looks, don a daring combination of fishnets, mini-skirt and kinky boots.  "Some of my friends would say I don’t look that different to how I did in 1987!" laughs the 37-year-old actor, who stars as Petruchio in the modern-day comedy.  "I was heavily into make-up and nail polish back then.I was very androgynous; I loved eye-liner and had huge feather earrings. I never actually wore kinky boots or a mini-skirt but I wasn’t far off it, believe me.   I was also quite big in the rugby team, though, so I just about got away with it.

Almost two decades later, Rufus rediscovered his feminine side when Sally Wainwright’s adaptation of one of Shakespeare’s best-loved plays called for him to model heels of which Manolo Blahnik would be proud.  "It was worryingly fun and I felt strangely liberated," he laughs.. "Often you see transvestites and they look like their mums– they lose all sense of taste.. But I really like the idea that Petruchio looks kind of good. To him, he’s not dressed like a woman – he’s dressed like someone who says, ‘I’ll wear what the hell I like’."   Petruchio’s certainly no "laydee " … on the contrary, he’s lord of a somewhat crumbling manor. He might have a title (the 16th Earl of Charlbury), but he hasn’t got much money.  So when he meets hard-nosed MP Katherine Minola (Shirley Henderson)– who also happens to be loaded – he’s determined to woo her.  "It’s not love at first sight, it’s money at first sight, which then becomes something more. It’s a story of two total misfits taming each other, really," says Rufus, who jumped at the chance to work with Shirley Henderson again, after striking up a great friendship with the Scots actress on the set of the Bafta-winning BBC period drama Charles II two years ago. "I loved playing Petruchio because he’s just a big, daft, nice character.  He does outrageous things and behaves totally inappropriately and it was a lot of fun just to have that kind of release."

The actor describes the film as a "modern riff on Shakespeare "and, appropriately, decided early on that "Petruchio is just the type of person who, occasionally, might quote a little bit of Shakespeare for theatrical effect. There are plenty of fruity old farts who do that – and he’s one of them!"  It’s not something Rufus would ever be caught doing, not least because, as a teenager, he did his best to avoid Shakespeare – and, indeed, school – while his classmates grappled with the iambic pentameter.  

Rufus was born in Twickenham to Welsh mother Jo and Australian father Bill, an animator who worked on Yellow Submarine. His father died when Rufus was just 10 and Jo was left to bring up him and his older brother, Caspar, alone.  Rufus readily admits his mum had her work cut out: he was a teen rebel and bunking off school was his speciality. "I wasn’t a model schoolboy," he says.. "Of course, I was forced to sit through Shakespeare and I really got into some of it, though it depended on who was reading it out.  If your first experience of Twelfth Night is some grumpy teenager droning on incomprehensibly, it can put you off a bit."

Despite his early misgivings about education, Rufus (who insists "I’m a better- behaved boy now than I was then ") studied at London’s Central School of Speech and Drama, where he won the Best Newcomer Award for his London stage debut in Making It Better.  "I was a very undisciplined person but acting was something that actually motivated me to get up in the morning."
Thanks, Rai!

Evening Standard Magazine (interview)
PLAYING THE SEWELL
November 4, 2005
Photos and transcript of the interview

HIGH POINT FILMS AND TELEVISION - SHAKESPEARE

       4 x 90 mins

SHAKESPEARE updates the most famous dramatist in the world for a 21st century audience. Each feature is a top notch production with first class cast.

SYNOPSIS

MACBETH becomes an ambitious chef in a competitive top London restaurant. Starring James McAvoy (Shameless) and Keeley Hawes (Tipping the Velvet) ; directed by Mark Brozel (Holy Cross) and written by Peter Moffat (Hawking)

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING is transposed to the world of daytime TV presenters. Starring Damian Lewis (The Forsyte Saga) and Billie Piper (Dr. Who) ; directed by Brian Percival (North and South) and written by David Nicholls (Cold Feet)

 
    Shirley Henderson (Kate) and Rufus (Petruchio)
THE TAMING OF THE SHREW is reimagined in the environment of modern media savvy politics. Starring Rufus Sewell (A Knight's Tale) and Shirley Henderson (Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason) ; directed by David Richard (Conviction) and written by Sally Wainwright (At Home with the Braithwaites) .

CAST

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM
Imelda Staunton, Bill Patterson, Simon Day, Lennie James, Sharon Small, Johnny Vegas

MACBETH
James McAvoy, Keeley Hawes, Vincent Regan

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING
Sarah Parish, Damian Lewis, Billie Piper

THE TAMING OF THE SHREW
Shirley Henderson, Rufus Sewell, Jamie Murray, Twiggy, Stephen Tompkinson

http://www.highpointfilms.co.uk/shakespeare/
Thanks, Rai!

Some new images...courtesy of the lovely Minx..for more please visit The Eyes Are The Mirror Of The Sewell

                  

              

   and these from U-hip!

        

thanks, Rai!!!

               

Fans of the usually macho Rufus Sewell may be shocked by his latest role - he plays a cross-dresser in a modern version of Shakespeare's romantic comedy,
The Taming Of The Shrew.   However, as our main picture shows, cold weather during the shoot meant he was more interested in wrapping up.   Indeed, all
of the cast, including Twiggy, Stephen Tompkinson, Shirley Henderson and Jaime Murray, had to don coats.  The Beeb is hoping for a repeat of the success of
its Canterbury Tales updates.

TV Times - April 9-15, 2005

Images from 'The Taming of the Shrew" courtesy of The Eyes Are The Mirror of the Sewell
thanks, Minx!!

From the official BBC website
Monday, 21 March, 2005

Related Links

http://www.bbc.co.uk/drama/shakespeare/tvdramas/tvdramas.shtml

thanks, Minx

BBC gives Shakespeare a makeover in the UK
Indiantelevision.com Team

18 March 2005 6:00 pm

MUMBAI: This is an attempt by UK broadcaster BBC One to fulfill its committment to engage and entertain the widest possible audience with Shakespeare's stories in new and original ways. To this end BBC One has commenced production on four modern adaptations of Shakespeare plays.
Shirley Henderson will play Kate opposite Rufus Sewell's Petruchio in Sally Wainwright's version of The Taming of the Shrew. In the new version the vitriolic, aggressive and shrewish, Kate is an opposition MP who is instructed to find herself a husband to make her more electable. The romantic comedy explores the complexities of relationships against a backdrop of glamorous London circles and politics.

Much Ado About Nothing gets a makeover with a television flavour. Actress Sarah Parish plays Beatrice, presenter of a popular early evening regional news show. Her ex-lover and arch enemy Benedick, played by Damian Lewis, is hired as her co-anchor. One of the Bards most famous tragedies Macbeth is transposed to the enclosed and heated world of a top restaurant kitchen. BBC head of drama series and serials Laura Mackie says, "There have been modern versions of Shakespeare before but these new interpretations remain true to the originals. At the same time, they are unashamedly a very personal take by each writer - our aspiration is that they work on their own terms for a modern audience."

The BBC is also working with the Shakespeare Schools Festival on a celebration of Shakespeare with a one-off festival night across the UK on 3 July. 10,000 children (aged 11-16) from 400 schools
will perform abridged plays in 100 theatres.

thanks, Rai!

BBC updates Shakespeare

Owen Gibson, media correspondent
Tuesday March 15, 2005
The Guardian

The BBC is hoping to bring Shakespeare alive for a new generation after signing up a string of well-known faces including Rufus Sewell, Stephen Tompkinson and Billie Piper to star in a series of big-budget adaptations of the Bard's plays.

They will also link up with the Shakespeare Schools Festival to organise a one-off event on the evening of July 3, when 400 schools will perform abridged versions of the plays in 100 theatres around the country.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1437845,00.html
thanks, Rai!!

BBC to screen modern Shakespeare

BBC News/Entertainment
Tuesday, March 15, 2005

Rufus Sewell

Rufus Sewell starred in Charles II: The Power and The Passion

The BBC is to film four contemporary adaptations of Shakespeare plays, to be screened this autumn.

A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Taming of the Shrew, Macbeth and Much Ado About Nothing are the four which will be given a modern makeover.
A number of well-known actors, including Keeley Hawes, Shirley Henderson and Rufus Sewell have signed up to star in them.
The dramas will be part of a season of programmes about the bard.

Holiday Park

The new versions will see The Taming Of The Shrew set in the world of politics and A Midsummer Night's Dream being played out in a holiday park.
Macbeth will be transferred to a restaurant kitchen, while Much Ado About Nothing will focus on two rival news readers.
"There have been modern versions of Shakespeare before but these new interpretations remain true to the originals," said Laura Mackie, BBC Head of drama series and serials.
"At the same time, they are unashamedly a very personal take by each writer - our aspiration is that they work on their own terms for a modern audience."
The Shakespeare adaptations follow on from the modern-day adaptations of Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, which were screened on BBC One in 2003.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/4351249.stm

March 15 2005
BBC1 returns to the Bard

Following where The Canterbury Tales left off, BBC1 is now lining up four new big-budget contemporary adaptations of the Bard for this autumn, its first Shakespearean dramas for over 15 years.

"There have been modern versions of Shakespeare before but these new interpretations remain true to the originals," said BBC head of drama series and serials, Laura Mackie. "At the same time, they are unashamedly a very personal take by each writer - our aspiration is that they work on their own terms for a modern audience."

All in-house BBC Drama productions, the foursome includes Sally Wainwright's version of The Taming of the Shrew, starring Shirley Henderson as somewhat Machiavellian MP and Rufus Sewell as her husband. David Richards (Conviction, Reckless) directs.

In David Nicholls' Much Ado About Nothing, Sarah Parish stars as the presenter of a regional news show whose ex-lover and arch enemy, played by Damian Lewis (Band of Brothers), is hired as her co-anchor. Brian Percival directs.

Peter Moffat has transported Macbeth to the claustrophobic world of a top restaurant kitchen, with James McAvoy and Keeley Hawes starring; while Peter Bowker has set A Midsummer Night's Dream during a weekend in a holiday park. Mark Brozel will direct Macbeth, Ed Fraiman will direct Dream.

The four films will be "the centrepiece of a commitment across the BBC this autumn to engage and entertain the widest possible audience with Shakespeare's stories in new and original ways," said the broadcaster, no doubt hoping the high brow classics will ease perpetual sniping about the Corporation chasing ratings.

With further Shakespearean adaptations in the pipeline if these first four prove successful, BBC1 also today unveiled a summer season dedicated to Africa. New programmes like Geldof on Africa and The Girl In The Café will sit alongside themed versions of existing shows like Ground Force and Strictly African Dancing.


15 Mar 2005
© C21 Media 2005

http://www.c21media.net/news/detail.asp?area=1&article=23932