User reviews

Let's face it, there is no perfect production of Hamlet, it's simply far too long and varied and cerebral to get completely perfect across the board, especially what with the challenges of Elizabethan English and Shakespeare's abstruse dialogue. In any staging of it, there are bound to be certain moments, scenes, or intonations that one disagrees with. I've seen a lot of filmed Hamlet productions: Olivier, Gibson, Branagh, Scott, and now this BBC film with Jacobi. In terms of faithful, full-length productions, this one ranks up there with the very best.

Most Hamlet productions are drastically cut, because to perform the entire play takes a stage-time of four to five hours. This production appears to be complete -- that is, ALL of the original Shakespeare dialogue is intact -- and so it's essential for scholars and Shakespeare-lovers. And though the lines seemed rushed on rare occasion (for those less completely familiar with the text), for the most part the script is well-acted, well-spoken, and well-performed. Subtitles are available and very helpful, although upon occasion they lag slightly behind.

Jacobi does a quite admirable job with theatre's longest and most impossible role. I actually cried when Hamlet dies, and I don't think I've done that before. Patrick Stewart (as Claudius) and Claire Bloom (as Gertrude) are excellent, as are Lalla Ward (Ophelia) and David Robb (Laertes), and the rest of the very on-point cast. Sets are minimal, so we can thankfully concentrate on the play without distraction or attention paid to non-essentials.

At 3 hours and 45 minutes, this full-length Hamlet is a long haul to sit through, but again, if you want the real deal, it's 100% worth it, even if one needs to take an intermission for oneself. I highly recommend this production to all Shakespeare lovers and scholars.

Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (1980) is a BBC video production, directed by Rodney Bennett. Between 1978 and 1985, the BBC produced all 37 of Shakespeare's plays for British television. They are now available on DVD.

This Hamlet was a studio production. BBC chose not to film on location, or to film a stage production. Instead, the director relied on generic sets that convey the sense, if not the details, of the setting of each scene. The decision worked well. We're not distracted from the drama by quirky, anachronistic details, or by the dramatic architecture of Elsinore Castle.

The principle actors are all highly skilled Shakespearean professionals--Derek Jacobi as Hamlet, Claire Bloom as Gertrude, and Patrick Stewart as Claudius.

Derek Jacobi was 42 years old when he starred in this production. (Shakespearean scholars disagree about Hamlet's age. Some argue that he was 30, but most believe that he was under 20.) Jacobi's age could have posed a problem, but his talent, and his lithe, youthful manner carried him through. Claire Bloom, at age 49, was so beautiful that you could believe that Claudius would murder a king in order to possess her. However, to my mind, the acting honors go to Patrick Stewart. His King Claudius is the embodiment of Machiavelli's Prince--ruthless, intelligent, and calm in a crisis. When Claudius speaks, people believe what he's telling them, even when he's lying. As portrayed by Stewart, Claudius is always acting--we never hear a sincere word from him except during his soliloquy. Stewart's performance is the best portrayal of Claudius that I've ever seen.

This was the only filmed Shakespearean performance by Lalla Ward, who played Ophelia. However, Ward's ethereal beauty and solid acting skills enabled her to keep pace with the veterans. (Dr. Who fans will recognize Ward as the actor who portrayed Romana II between 1979 and 1981.)

This movie presents us with good, solid Shakespeare. It's a very satisfying production, and definitely worth seeing. The BBC Shakespeare series was particularly popular for use in schools, colleges, and public libraries. The DVD's are expensive to purchase individually, although the boxed sets are reasonably priced. My suggestion is to check the DVD out of your local or college library, and treat yourself to over two hours of excellent Shakespeare.

I've seen various Hamlets, and I've taught the play. As I watch Jacobi, I'm tempted to think that he's every bit as intelligent as Hamlet himself, so alive is he to every nuance of this character's wit. He deepens, rather than solves, every puzzle regarding Hamlet's character. He illuminates line after line, word after word, shining light into this sparkling mind. At the same time, however, we cringe at the horror Hamlet feels at his betrayal--far more than with any other actor--because Jacobi feels the pain more profoundly than anyone else. And we shudder at Hamlet's own betrayals, because Jacobi is not afraid of the baseness to which Hamlet can descend. In short, Jacobi gives us Hamlet in full, and Hamlet in full is the greatest character in literature. That's why I'm satisfied that Jacobi's Hamlet is the finest performance I've seen by an actor.

I saw this version of Hamlet on television many years ago, and have seen every other version since, whether television or movie. However, this is the one that remains the truest depiction of the story for me. Most excellent Derek Jacobi made Hamlet *real* for me. Before I saw this version, Shakespeare was simply gibberish to me and I never tried to understand the Elizabethan English. Having seen Jacobi's Hamlet several times not only increased my knowledge of literature, but also that of my family. I promptly checked the play out of Library and read it, and poured over the accompanying recording. Jacobi's rendition attracted me to a deeper knowledge. And yet, I have been searing for a video of it for years and years to no avail. It gets a very high rating from viewers. Why, then, has it not been released on video? It's the only Hamlet that I'd invest in...

No one production of "Hamlet" can completely satisfy except for the one that plays in your head as you read the play, but this is the extant version that comes closest for me (with one glaring exception).

Derek Jacobi is probably the best actor that I've seen play the role, although he's brittle and snappish in places (his first exchanges with Claudius and Gertrude, his comments to Polonius during the 'Rugged Pyrrhus' speech) where I think a mellower touch is called for. But on the whole it's a wonderful performance, and since Hamlet has almost half the lines in the whole play Jacobi himself is enough to strongly recommend the whole.

This Polonius is better than most, although not as funny as Hume Cronyn was. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are well played, straddling the difficult line between being friends to Hamlet and scoring points with the King. A fine, fiery Laertes, and an Ophelia that's no worse than any others (I've yet to see Ophelia played the way I feel she ought to be). Gertrude was adequate (I've also yet to see a compelling Gertrude, but I don't particularly know what I would suggest). It's also too bad that nobody seems to put any sense of spectacle into the Ghost's appearance any more; the Olivier film and the Burton stage production both give it an unworldliness that the Jacobi, Kline, Gibson and Hawk versions lack (although if I remember correctly Brian Blessed was well-used in the Brannagh film)...

The big drawback to this version is in the casting of Patrick Stewart as Claudius. The fault is not in his performance, which is worthy, but in the man himself. Granted, Claudius may not be as much of a toad as Hamlet thinks him to be, but his "natural gifts" should be poor compared to his murdered brother's. Stewart in fact HAS "the front of Jove himself; An eye like Mars, to threaten and command," which Claudius pointedly lacks. In short, Stewart is just too REGAL to play Claudius, the "king of shreds and patches". (And it's not just the father-and-son Hamlets that consider Claudius visibly inferior; Gertrude herself, when Hamlet makes her confront the two pictures, sees black and grained spots on her soul at the comparison.)

All in all, though, it's an excellent production.

This production of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark is by far the best that I have seen. Although it may not have the production value of some of the more recent adaptations, it does have the most important element: Sir Derek Jacobi as Hamlet.

Jacobi's portrayal of the disturbed Prince is multi-layered and riveting. His displays of emotion swing from hatred to sorrow, love to vengefulness and everywhere else on the map, but without seeming forced or over-the-top. In fact, some of the more powerful sequences occur when he underplays them, with stillness, soft speech and thoughtful expression. As to whether or not he interprets Hamlet as mad or sane...well, you should decide for yourselves; I changed my mind more than once. At one point it seems he has thought himself sane and merely playing at madness, but suspects that he is actually mad after all...a revelation to himself, captured beautifully. Having performed the part of Hamlet on stage more times than any other actor in history, Jacobi's affinity for the role then comes as little surprise.

As for the production itself, it is presented as a kind of "filmed-copy" of the stage play, with little special effects or fancy camera work, minimal sets and no musical accompaniment to speak of. This production relies on the acting prowess of the cast, and the words of Shakespeare, to evoke the emotion and interest of its audience. And it works. The other players are top-notch as well, particularly Patrick Stewart's "Claudius" and Claire Bloom's "Gertrude." Together the cast present a seamless ensemble.

The last (but far from least) element that makes this production stand out is the play itself. Here it is presented in its entirety, a rarity on film. But, oddly enough, I never noticed the time. I was too busy getting caught up in the story. I suspect that you will, too.

I have seen all the film interpretations of Hamlet, from Sir Lawrence Olivier to Mel Gibson (gasp). Derek Jacobi captures the true essence of the character, from the beginning to the brutal climax. Superb acting all around. This one should not be missed.

What a great play! Shakespeare really is more rich and detailed here than just about anywhere else.This particular production of Hamlet has great virtues. It also has a vacuum at the center that really kills it.

Eric Portman, who usually played mournful death's heads like Soames Forsyte, here plays the best Polonius I've ever seen - a man of gravity and wisdom floating off into dottiness. Claire Bloom as Gertrude is, as usual, faultless in Shakespeare, completely natural in both language and understanding. Patrick Allen is a restrained and powerful Ghost, thinning out his rich voice into a dry and austere insistence. Robert Swann brings warmth and dignity to Horatio.

That being said, there are problems. Patrick Stewart early in his career seems a bit lost, often setting the Indoor Iambic Pentameter Speed Record by simply gabbling his speeches at the expense of meaning.

Lalla Ward's Ophelia is acceptable in her Mad Scene, but not so in what leads up to it, where she enjoys being watched a little too much. David Robb's Laertes is OK when quiet, without resources at top volume.

Rodney Bennett, more at home with Dr. Who episodes, hasn't a clue about directing Shakespeare. Shot out of sequence in 8 days, the scenes lack emotional flow from one to the next, unusual in this BBC series. Patrick Stewart's hairpiece migrates distractingly up and down his pate, and Hamlet himself has two different haircuts. But the real problem is the star.

Derek Jacobi followed a West End run as Hamlet with a two-year tour that took him all over the UK and the Far East. Taped immediately after his return, this DVD shows him ossified and stale, gimmicky and unable or unwilling to scale his performance down for TV.

Hamlet's soliloquies are directed to the camera, which works only if we are addressed as individual viewers, not as a public gathering. Here they are overstated and wearisome.

Especially in the first half, Jacobi's performance is often trivial silliness, as one audience-tested piece of shtick follows another with trip-hammer inevitability. Hamlet's bawling during the Ghost's speech is mere scene-stealing, and his subsequent collapse in a fit is just awful to watch, like diving off the high board into an empty swimming pool. Hamlet's scene with Ophelia is remarkably vicious, the one with Gertrud genuinely distasteful. Only as events speed up to a final climax does Jacobi even begin to pull himself together.

Throughout, Derek Jacobi performs with one hand holding a mirror, so he can watch what he's doing. Worse, he likes what he sees. I presume this kind of calculation of effect can work on stage, but with a camera up his nose, it's unbearable.

This is probably why Sir Ian McKellan has made a screen career and Jacobi hasn't. A film or TV actor doesn't project to the audience, he lets the camera read his mind. Jacobi, by contrast, alternates between megaphone and sledgehammer. For me, Jacobi remains a superficial, inconsequential Hamlet compared to Olivier or Burton.

A strong director might have been able to bring all this under control, but that's not what happens here. A humane Polonius and genuine Gertrude can't compensate for a self-indulgent Hamlet, a tentative Claudius and a weak hand on the tiller.

The BBC is sitting on a 1964 Hamlet actually filmed at Elsinore Castle with Christopher Plummer, Robert Shaw, Michael Caine and Donald Sutherland. May we see that please?

Absolutely the most thoughtful, spiritually deep, intense Hamlet ever done -- no other version comes close. Jacobi has the best understanding of the role of all the actors that have played it. Patrick Stewart's Claudius is ferocious and still sympathetic -- I particularly like the two doofuses playing Rosencranz and Guildenstern. Very feckless and yet sinister. Some might gripe about the need for a strong Ophelia -- she's not a strong person, that's the point, and Lalla Ward hits the proper nuances. Amazing. Simply Amazing -- every one of the more than two dozen times I've watched it.

I have seen this play many times, from Olivier to Branagh, and this remains the one version that always stands out in my memory. Many actors have captured aspects of this character, but for me, it is always Derek Jacobi's performance they are compared to and all others just come up a bit short.

Derek Jacobi's idea of Hamlet is a dreamer, a plotter, a voyeur in the corrupt court of Denmark, and it is an interesting variation on other versions. The downside is the traditional costume so he's in tights, not the best idea, but these things can be ignored. Gertrude is the great Claire Bloom, who is excellent in this, while Patrick Stewart is a nasty-minded letch as Claudius. Lalla Ward from Dr Who is an ok Ophelia but not wonderful.

Aside from Jacobi there are two other great acting performances in this - Eric Porter is a busy Polonius, and Patrick Allen is a suitably sinister Ghost. The BBC staging is sparse, which suits this play very well and brings scenes such as Claudius praying, and Hamlet's scene with his mother, more intimate and effective.

I have watched every version of this play that I can think of, including several on the stage, and Sir Derek Jacobi is absolutely the best Hamlet I have ever seen!

He has the most wonderful voice for stage acting, and his expressive face will take you on a roller coaster of emotions throughout this play. The way in which he delivers his lines takes you on a journey through madness. He (as Hamlet)can in an instant be loving, soft and gentle and in another instant be raging against the hell that is his life. You believe that he is in pain, you believe that he is angry, you believe that he is not a little mad. You believe he IS Hamlet.

Of course, some of the thanks obviously goes to Shakespeare, :) but without an excellent actor to get the words from the page to the stage, it doesn't really matter how well written a play is.

If you like Shakespeare, you absolutely must see this version. If you don't like Shakespeare, you absolutely must see this version. You will come away with a new appreciation for Shakespeare if you do. The nuanced performance that Sir Derek gives will leave you breathless.

This is a Shakespeare play about the prince of Denmark and tragedy surrounding the family. Many people want to say the prince Hamlet is indecision, yet he outmaneuvers just about everyone and has a depth of vision. Now watch as Hamlet discovers who killed the king, his father, and how he attempts to get his revenge.

Hamlet is played by Derek Jacobi who gets involved with other productions of hamlet and eventually gets to play Claudius in the Kenneth Branagh version.

However, I still have a place for all the BBC productions as they do not try to exonerate but sound like people talking instead of spitting at the audience. As with many Shakespeare plays the get permeated with the popular characters of the time. In this case, they may have been popular actors but where do you remember first seeing Claire Bloom or Patrick Stewart?

This is the version I studied in school when they were trying to point out language differences and subplots. Eventually, I found my copy as a supplement to a book.

I still today play it periodically to compare to the other versions. I think you will find it a very good version if you want to know what they are saying without having to read the screenplay.

Amazing, amazing, amazing. What more can be said? Jacobi is the best Hamlet ever to grace the stage and captures every inch of the character. Every nuance and element of Hamlet is depicted and depicted well. Some people have complained about his age, but you honestly cannot tell when watching the film. If anything, he looks drastically younger than 40. I only wish a more worthy Ophelia could have been found. Her acting is passable but she just doesn't look the part. The only real exceptional performances come from Jacobi and Stewart, who is a great Claudius. The rest of the cast is good, but Jacobi is what truly elevates this teleplay.

Havn't seen Branagh or Mel Gibson, & Olivier is a distant b&w teenage memory, but this is GOOD. The cast is awesome & lives upto its billing. Patrick Stewart is a great 'villain' (I havn't seen Conspiracy Theory, so I don't know how good a villain he is in movies), Claire Bloom is a sexy queen (she was one short of 50 when this was made, but very oomph). The sexual tension between she & Hamlet crackles. Stretches in between drag things down a bit (even Shakespeare was indecisive when he wrote it?) but the last hour is electrifying. As for Derek Jacobi, what do I say? Worth keeping the telly running for 4 hours.

'Hamlet' is one of Shakespeare's most famous and most lauded plays, and one can see why with such memorable characters, some of the most deservedly famous in all literature, and text often quoted and referenced. It is a long play and not easy to perform at all, but the characterisation, language and complex emotions have always riveted me and it has always been one of my favourites from Shakespeare.

This 1980 production of 'Hamlet' is to me one of the better productions of the BBC Television Shakespeare series that ran from 1978 to 1985. Although not a consistent series (some did have budget and staging limitations, and not all the performances throughout the series worked), the BBC Television Shakespeare productions are truly fascinating. Mainly to see all of Shakespeare's plays adapted and performed in one series and to see them performed relatively faithfully generally with mostly good casts. One is spoilt for choice regarding available productions of 'Hamlet', with none of them being perfect but all of them have many great things to recommend about them. Consider BBC's version to be among the best in overall quality and something of a must watch if one is wanting to see a production that's faithful and feels complete.

With this 'Hamlet', there is nothing rotten and very little to protest about. If there was a weak link of the cast and of the production, from personal opinion Lalla Ward came over as somewhat stiff and bland as Ophelia.

Perhaps would have liked the spectacle of the ghost to have been spookier too.

On the other hand, on a visual level production values may not be lavish or grand, being quite sparse instead in the sets. But, considering that 'Hamlet' is a very dark play and with a location that is not specified in the text as a wondrous place (like 'The Tempest', that was an example of an under-budgeted production although it was still decent elsewhere), it was hardly inappropriate. They didn't always come over as ugly or tacky to me, apart from sometimes the hair, and served their purpose well. Considering that the budget wasn't a big one they could have been far worse. The camera work doesn't try to do too much or anything too fancy that it comes over as chaotic and has intimacy when needed, though it could have opened up more. The staging has emotion and dramatic tension, especially in the Hamlet/Gertrude scene and the brutal climax, and didn't feel too busy or static, having the right amount of momentum while being tasteful and cohesive at the same time.

Shakespeare's text shines through constantly, all the crucial famous lines and solliloquies having full impact and delivered beautifully. Apart from Ward, there is a lot to love about the performances. Derek Jacobi oozes authority and Hamlet's conflicted emotions are handled chillingly and touchingly. Do agree to some extent that Patrick Stewart was too regal somewhat as Claudius, but it is still an effectively calculating portrayal that doesn't fall into one-dimensional villainy. Claire Bloom nails all of Gertrude's many traits and characteristics, while Eric Porter's dignified Polonius is one of the best. David Robb brings fire and humanity to Laertes, Patrick Allen cuts a powerful, in a way that's both spooky and subtle, presence as the Ghost and Robert Swann's Horatio has a lot of warmth.

In summary, a couple of quibbles but excellent. 9/10 Bethany Cox

This is a very good TV movie ,despite being very long(ten minutes longer than Othello ,which was also quite long).Sets and costumes look amazing and the cast does very good job,but maybe Ophelia could have been a little less stiff and bland.I reccomend this Hamlet to any Shakespeare lover.9/10

One of the better BBC Television Shakespeare adaptations, and actually one of the best versions of the great play full stop. Derek Jacobi remains my favourite Hamlet. Though he was fairly old at the time of making this, he is completely believable as the young Prince and portrays the full range of angst and torment and existential doom required for a complete performance of Hamlet. Some Prince Hamlet's can come across as petulant and annoying but Jacobi invokes so much pathos and is willing to make himself so vulnerable that you are fully invested in him and feel the tragedy of the conclusion in its totality. The pacing is quite slow and it isn't the most watchable version thanks to 40 year old low budget TV production quality, but Jacobi's performance renders it all forgivable. Other good performances include Patrick Stewart as Claudius.

Other user reviews here point out that the text of the play would have Claudius much more repellent than the young, sexy Patrick Stewart plays him. Two years younger, in real life, than Jacobi, his 'nephew'! But I found Stewart's Claudius to be fascinatingly convincing -- a worthy villain. After all, how did he manage to seduce Gertrude if he was the sneaky, ugly troll that Hamlet thinks him to be!

Every English-speaker in the world should see this imperishable masterpiece. And if you aren't quite fluent in Elizabethan, what a help the closed captioning is!

One great virtue of this production is that it includes considerably more of Shakespeare's dialogue than do most other versions. Quite a number of lines have been excised -- including my favourite lines "For, though I am not splenitive and rash/Yet have I in me something dangerous,/Which let thy wisdom fear" -- but the excisions are fewer and less sizeable than in virtually any other production.

Most of the performances range from good to excellent. The previous reviews on this site are either strongly critical or effusively laudatory in their assessments of Derek Jacobi's performance. My own assessment is more favourable than negative, but the queries raised by the critical reviewers are genuine. Jacobi does overact terribly at a few junctures, and he does often convey the impression that he is holding up a mirror to himself rather than to nature. Nonetheless, his acting is largely adept when he keeps himself under control. (In fairness to Jacobi, I should note that over-the-top moments in a performance of the character of Hamlet are virtually inevitable.) He articulates the lines in his major soliloquies deftly, but he is patently addressing the audience rather than himself. With such searingly introspective soliloquies, an actor should be addressing himself -- as Bob Hoskins so skillfully does in the role of Iago in "Othello."

My other main reservations concern Patrick Stewart (one of my favourite Shakespearean actors). Stewart is two years younger than Jacobi, and -- as one of the previous reviewers on this site has remarked -- he is far too handsome and regal in his bearing to be suitable as the "king of shreds and patches". Moreover, in the key soliloquy in III.iii and in his colloquy with Laertes in IV.vii, Stewart races unintelligibly through some of his lines. (In IV.vii, the problem is compounded by a temporary degeneration in the quality of the sound on the DVD. I recommend that you keep the subtitles on at all times.) Stewart's performance is excellent for the most part, but one has to query whether he really belonged in the role of Claudius at that stage in his career.