TV Review King Lear

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Guessing everyone knows the plot so no spoilers needed A big cast modern dress production by the BBC made for the Bank Holiday Weekend at the end of May. Anthony Hopkins plays the lead, magnificent in the capture of the royal folly. His descent into the very madness he fears is clear cut award winning drama. The best performances however belong to Christopher Ecclestone’s simpering cowardly Oswald, Karl Johnson’s aged Fool, (usually a role for a much younger actor than the Lear-player). Johnson makes the fool like Estragon from Waiting For Godot. Emma Thomson’s Gonerial, clearly repulsed by Lear, especially when he embraces her, is another great character study. Jim Broadbent is equally great as Gloucester, with a really horrific depiction of his blinding. If there is a weakness it is the portrayals of Edgar and Edmond. Edgar’s switch to playing at Poor Tom O’Bedlam seems rushed and his mixed martial arts duel with Edmond looks messy. The highlight is the storm and aftermath, with Lear (mad), Fool (sane but cryptic) and Edgar as Tom, feigning madness amidst the homeless of Stevenage is a brilliant sequence. The finale drains the colour from the screen, so the final tragic outcome is given in near stark black and white. Jim Carter’s Earl Of Kent, a helpless observer to the whole mess staggers out in depression to his unavoidable appointment with his Master, giving a sense that he is just going to kill himself. Riveting, depressing and brilliant. I still prefer the Olivier production though. Arthur Chappell