ShakespeaRe-Told
ShakespeaRe-Told is the umbrella title for a series of four adaptions of William Shakespeare's plays broadcast on BBC One through November 2005. In a similar manner to the 2003 adaption of The Canterbury Tales, each play is adapted by a different writer, and relocated to the present day.
The episodes
- Adapted by David Nicholls
- Broadcast 7th November 2005
- Set in a local news studio, with Beatrice (Sarah Parish)and Benedick (Damien Lewis) as bickering anchors. Hero (Billie Piper) is the weathergirl and daughter of station manager Leonard (Martin Jarvis), and Claude (Tom Ellis) is the sports presenter. The roles of Don John and Borachio are combined into visual effects manager Don (Dereck Riddell).
- Adapted by Peter Moffat
- Broadcast 14 November 2005
- Set in a three-star restaurant owned by Duncan (Vincent Regan), with Joe Macbeth (James McAvoy) as the head chef and his wife (Keeley Hawes) as the maitre d'. The three witches become supernatural binmen who predict that Macbeth will get ownership of the restaurant, as will Billy Banquo's children, but that Macbeth should be wary of Peter Macduff, the head waiter.
- Adapted by Sally Wainwright
- Broadcast 21 November 2005
- Katherine (Shirley Henderson) is a career politician, who is told her abrasive personality is bad PR and that it might be good for her image to have a conventional relationship with Petruchio (Rufus Sewell).
- Adapted by Peter Bowker
- To be broadcast 28 November 2005
- Theo (Bill Paterson) and Polly (Imelda Staunton) visit Dream Park inclusive leisure facility to celebrate their daughter Hermia's engagement (Theseus and Hippolyta are not Hermia's parents in the original). Comedian Johnny Vegas appears as Nick Bottom.