Did you people see the same film I saw?

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

The War Of The Roses gets going in Henry VI Part 2. But before that we are treated to a treasure trove of intrigue that would make the Tudors and The Borgias blush.At the end of Henry VI Part One Peter Benson as Henry and Julia Foster as Margaret Of Anjou are wed. They are brought together by the Duke Of Suffolk played by Paul Chapman who has a very good reason. There's a good chance that he and Queen Margaret were kanoodling behind the Duke's back. It was rumored about later on that the son Margaret had was Suffolk's and later his parentage was questioned by the Yorkists.But Suffolk is only one of the nobles who are intriguing against stout old Duke Humphrey uncle to the King and formerly his regent. Seems that Humphrey kicked out his first wife, paid off the church to annul his marriage and illegitimatize his children. He took what we now call a trophy wife who liked to dabble in the black arts and she gets set up good and proper and arrested by those out to blacken Humphrey's reputation. David Burke is the old Duke and Anne Carroll is the trophy duchess Eleanor.While all this is going on the Duke of York who long ago felt he ought to be king as his lineage is better and the present king is an idiot. He's watching all this and when on an expedition to Ireland he turns the troops over to his personal use and loyalty and lands claiming the crown. Helping him out and Shakespeare plants the distinct hint that Bernard Hill as York may have fomented some domestic rebellion. In 1450 The Jack Cade rebellion started with Cade presented as a rather thuggish sort claiming both royal lineage and a plan for social reform that Karl Marx would have found too radical. Trevor Peacock as Cade who sees popular opinion sway with the breeze is who you will most remember from this production.About 20 years of history is compacted into 3 and a half hours. But the characters do hold your interest. We also see Queen Margaret put the backbone into the Lancaster cause as Henry would rather be either in church praying or in the library studying. Back when this was first on television, at least on American television the historical plays were presented in chronological order. So audiences saw how the House Of Lancaster under Henry IV usurped the throne from Richard II and then saw the great warrior King Henry V defeat the French at Agincourt and almost take over France. Then in these first two parts of Henry VI we see how he's just not in the same mold as his ancestors.The War Of The Roses truly deserves a mini-series, I hope the BBC did one or will do one that we across the pond can see. In the meantime this is a fine production of Henry VI Part 2.

This is one of Shakespeare's earliest and weakest plays, but that doesn't excuse this production. The two leads (Peter Benson as King Henry and Julia Foster as Queen Margaret) are intolerable. Benson has some excuse, since playing a weak and useless king (who was in fact insane) makes it difficult to avoid acting weak and useless. Julia Foster, however, seemed to avoid acting altogether, in favor of simply glowering throughout the entire play. (In Part I, this made male characters' infatuation with her simply ridiculous). As usual with the BBC Shakespeare, however, most of the minor characters are well-portrayed; with, however, the exception of Ron Cook as the future Richard III, which bodes ill for the sequels. As was regrettably fashionable at the time, the production is minimalist while the directing is over-done, especially some of the later battle scenes. But when the leads and the director get out of the way, some of the Shakespeare shines through.

Henry VI (Peter Benson) has successfully overcome Joan La Pucelle but his marriage to the ferocious Queen Margaret of Naples (Julia Foster) has effectively given France back to the French and undone his father's conquest. Furthermore, civil strife brews as the scheming Duke of York (Bernard Hill) sets the ferocious Jack Cade (Trevor Peacock) upon the King as he sets up his bid to take the crown himself...The sets grow ever darker and the battles ever bloodier, with heads on pikes this time round and other gory deaths. England is headed straight to hell in hand basket and the actors revel in the story and the language.Peter Benson makes an excellent Henry VI, his gentle and frail appearance effectively conveying the monarch's powerlessness. Trevor Peacock, who played Talbot in Part One, makes for a ferocious Jack Cade and the scenes where he commands the masses to rebel are among the most stirring in these plays. Bernard Hill continues to impress as York, and also of note are Brian Protheroe as his eldest son Edward and Ron Cook making his first appearance as the hunchbacked youngest son, Richard...Despite the usual longueurs, it is worthily staged and well performed.

If a time machine could take us back to the Globe where this play was first performed, this, I believe, is how it would have looked. The "wooden 'O'" is created again for this lusty Beeb production, and we are treated to a gripping 3+ hours of high-flown politicking in sinewy blank verse. The exposition of a complex period of British history - the build-up to the Wars of the Roses - is admirably clear and so well told! At first we have the nobles conspiring against the thoroughly decent Humphrey, the king's protector (David Burke, bone honest), who, let down by a Lady Macbeth-like wife, is strangled while in the custody of malign Cardinal Beaufort (formidable Frank Middlemass), who himself then dies horribly of remorse. The scheming Suffolk (audaciously lofty Paul Chapman) is executed by pirates, and the Queen cries for revenge while cradling his severed head: Julia Foster, who used to be an insipid actress, has a bold stab at Margaret of Anjou ('she-wolf of France'), while the weird but beautifully spoken Peter Benson as her pious, ineffectual husband King Henry prays and laments. Trevor Peacock is a terrific Jack Cade (with Burke, again, as his henchman) in electrifying scenes of riot and rebellion in the City of London.Towards the end the Duke of York (Bernard Hill), the king's most powerful adversary, returns from Ireland with an army and his three sons, the youngest being deformed Richard, soon to be Richard III. All the while Warwick the King-Maker (Mark Wing-Davey) is waiting in the wings: I can hardly wait for Part Three!