The Hollow Crown (TV series)

The Hollow Crown
Genre	Historical drama
Based on	Shakespearean history by William Shakespeare
Developed by	Rupert Goold Ben Power Richard Eyre Dominic Cooke
Directed by	Rupert Goold Richard Eyre Thea Sharrock Dominic Cooke
Starring	Ben Whishaw Patrick Stewart Jeremy Irons Tom Hiddleston Benedict Cumberbatch Hugh Bonneville Judi Dench Sophie Okonedo Tom Sturridge
Music by	Stephen Warbeck Adam Cork Adrian Johnston Dan Jones
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
Production
Executive producer	Sam Mendes
Producer	Rupert Ryle-Hodges
Running time	varies
Production companies	Neal Street Productions NBCUniversal WNET
Original release
Network	BBC Two PBS
Release	30 June 2012 (2012-06-30) – 21 May 2016 (2016-05-21)
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The Hollow Crown is a series of British television film adaptations of William Shakespeare's history plays.

The first series is an adaptation of Shakespeare's second historical tetralogy, the Henriad: Richard II, Henry IV, Part 1, Henry IV, Part 2 and Henry V,^[1] starring Ben Whishaw, Jeremy Irons and Tom Hiddleston. Olivier Award winners Rupert Goold, Richard Eyre and Thea Sharrock directed the telefilms,^[2] which were produced by Rupert Ryle-Hodges for BBC Two and executive produced by Sam Mendes and Pippa Harris under Neal Street Productions in association with NBCUniversal. The first series, which aired in the United Kingdom in 2012, received positive reviews from critics. Ben Whishaw and Simon Russell Beale won British Academy Television Awards for Leading actor and Supporting actor for their performances as Richard II and Falstaff, and Jeremy Irons was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actor for his role as Henry IV. The first episode, Richard II, was nominated for the Best Single Drama at the BAFTA TV Awards.^[3]

The BBC aired the concluding series in 2016 as The Hollow Crown: The Wars of the Roses, a reference to the series of English civil wars known as the Wars of the Roses,^[4] starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Hugh Bonneville, Judi Dench, Sophie Okonedo and Tom Sturridge. The plays were produced in 2015 by the same team that made the first series of films but were directed by the former artistic director of Royal Court Theatre and Olivier Award winner, Dominic Cooke.^[5] They are based on Shakespeare's first tetralogy: Henry VI, Part 1, Henry VI, Part 2, Henry VI, Part 3 and Richard III.^[6] The adaptation presents Henry VI in two parts, incorporating all three Henry VI plays. Benedict Cumberbatch was nominated for the BAFTA Television Award for Best Leading Actor and The Wars of the Roses was nominated for Best Mini-Series.^[7]

The title of the series is taken from a line in Richard II:

For within the hollow crown
That rounds the mortal temples of a king
Keeps Death his court...

— Richard II, act 3, scene 2