Henry V
1960: Michael Hayes

This encompasses episodes seven and eight of the massive fifteen-part BBC series “An Age of Kings”. It was a landmark achievement of its day; from here it looks rather raw and awkward. It is certainly not nearly at the cinematic level of even the 1944 film by Olivier. It is in black and white, and has also suffered somewhat the decay of time: even on the DVD, the image is a bit fuzzy, and probably fuzzier than it was originally; the soundtrack music warbles somewhat with the unevenness of a deformed tape. Some of its limitations are native to the medium: the episodes are only one hour each, no more than two per play, so they all are necessarily cut. Its musical score is a swelling and unironic patriotic march in the tradition of William Walton, though certainly not of his quality. Nevertheless, it is handled with a refreshing lack of irony, and conveys the story and Shakespeare’s language with respect.

The chorus makes an initial appearance, and shows up in person at various points throughout, but he also is largely heard later in voiceovers. The effectiveness of voiceovers is a subjective call. Some dislike the approach, but it is a resource that would not have been available in Shakespeare’s own time, and it is not at least inconsistent with a respectful treatment of the play.

Henry himself is played by the young Robert Hardy, whom many have seen (about fifty years later) as Cornelius Fudge in the Harry Potter movies. Even here he seems a little bit too mature (35) for the role, but he is no older than many others who have essayed the part. In his public scenes, he still occasionally allows his oratorical delivery to crack and show his diffidence. His night-time soliloquies and prayer resonate as genuine revelations of his private persona, and it’s definitely a portrayal worth examination and study. In his delivery of the St. Crispin’s Day speech, we see him in his public face, a player projecting the needful image. His rendition is as solid and stirring as any other I have heard, and more so than many.

In any production of Henry V, one of the more or less isolated treats is the French-language scene with Alice and Katherine, discussing English names for various body parts. Some play the text exaggeratedly, with grotesque mispronunciations, as if the matter itself were insufficiently amusing. Here it is refreshingly straightforward. (It is interesting that the text got past the censors in 1960: had it been in English, it almost certainly would not have done so.) Katherine is played by the young Judi Dench, whose career achievement is dazzlingly diverse, both on film and on stage, ranging from potboilers (“The Chronicles of Riddick”) and big-screen extravaganzas (M to Daniel Craig’s James Bond) to more Shakespeare (including the roles of Titania in the 1968 A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Nell Quickly in Branagh’s Henry V almost thirty years later.) It is worth watching the progression of a singular artist of her stature. Even at twenty-five, she had amazing presence.

A few details struck me, at least, as incongruously anachronistic:

1. The opening scene, in which Henry confers with the Archbishop of Canterbury and his counselors about the rightness of a French campaign, resembles nothing so much as a corporate board meeting or a graduate seminar on a text: everyone has copies of the relevant legal texts to consult together on standard letter-size paper. In an age when documents were generated by hand copying and not by Xerox, this is a luxury that would hardly be supportable, especially when half the lords in attendance would probably have been illiterate.
2. At several points, in both the English-teaching scene, and later when Henry woos Katherine, the speakers apparently refer to a French-English dictionary. As far as we know, no such works existed at the time. The earliest known lexicon of English and French is apparently that of the Huguenot refugee Claude de Sainliens published in 1593..

But these are small details in context, and probably more intrusive to a medieval Latinist like me than to most viewers.

All in all, this is not up to the video standards that many viewers will expect, but it will reward the viewer well enough.

Buy the BBC series An Age of Kings at Amazon. This is the black and white series made for television in 1960, containing both tetralogies of Shakespeare’s histories: Richard II, Henry IV, Part 1, Henry IV, Part 2, Henry V, Henry VI, Part 1, Henry VI, Part 2, Henry VI, Part 3, and Richard III.