The Hollow Crown (TV series)

The Hollow Crown
GenreHistorical drama
Based on
Shakespearean history
by
Developed by
Directed by
Starring
Music by
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
Production
Executive producerSam Mendes
ProducerRupert Ryle-Hodges
Running timevaries
Production companies
Original release
Network
Release30 June 2012 (2012-06-30) –
21 May 2016 (2016-05-21)
Infobox instructions (only shown in preview)

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
  1. ^ "The Hollow Crown: Series Info". Thetvdb.com. Retrieved 28 August 2013.
  2. ^ Lawson, Mark (29 June 2012). "The Hollow Crown: as good as TV Shakespeare can get?". The Guardian. Retrieved 28 August 2013.
  3. ^ "TV Baftas 2013: all the winners". The Guardian. 12 May 2013. Retrieved 13 May 2013.
  4. ^ "BBC Two announces further casting for The Hollow Crown: The Wars Of The Roses". BBC Media Centre. 21 August 2014. Retrieved 19 April 2016.
  5. ^ BBC Two (6 April 2014). "Richard III..." Twitter. Retrieved 19 April 2016.
  6. ^ "Tony Hall announces greatest commitment to arts for a generation". BBC Media Centre. 25 March 2014. Retrieved 19 April 2016.
  7. ^ "Bafta TV awards 2017: full list of winners". The Guardian. 14 May 2017. Retrieved 22 January 2018.