john-lauritsen The greatest fault of this performance is that many of the actors could not do justice to the words of Shakespeare. There are no subtitles. Some of the dialogue in Much Ado is in prose and some is in poetry (pentameter), but here one could hardly tell the difference. The actors put all their energies in emoting, making faces, flailing their arms around in meaningless gestures -- but they failed to enunciate. Some were worse than others. The actress who played Beatrice sometimes spoke much too fast, rushing the words together and producing gibberish. She was pretty, but that didn't compensate from her inability to deliver the Shakespeare words. The sound quality was not good, which made things even worse. The sets and costumes were nice enough, and the actors looked good enough, but so what? I'd rather watch a Shakespeare play on a bare stage, where the actors just wore blue jeans and T-shirts -- so long as I really heard the Shakespeare lines.

Troopie This remains, for me, one of the best of this superb BBC series & certainly the best version of this particular play. This production saw no need to dress up the actors in ridiculous fake-military costumes (a vice Branagh shows off in all his productions, I know not why) or cut those parts which it didn't like (either do Shakespeare as he wrote it or write your own play!). Robert Lindsay reveals previously unsuspected Shakespearian talent & I would dearly love to see him take on some other such roles. He is superb in this, using his comic ability to bring out the humorous essence of Benedick & the beautiful Cherie Lunghi (who has never shown me a poor performance, be it in Shakespeare, Hornblower or even "A Touch of Frost") is a perfect partner, being both cuttingly witty & enticing -- enough to make any Benedick risk her barbs to chase her! Admittedly, Jon Finch isn't as good as Denzil Washington, who also showed untapped Shakespearian talent (a future Othello or even Iargo, maybe?) but he isn't actually bad. All in all, a joy to watch & a great introduction to Shakespeare's lighter works. Sincerely recommended.

Alain English I really enjoyed the Kenneth Branagh version of "Much Ado About Nothing" and I was sorry to miss the recent RSC production, so I thought I would have a look at this one and see another take on one of Shakespeare's more popular comedies.Robert Lindsay certainly has the wit, panache and energy to make a really good Benedick and he's matched by the beautiful and sparkling Cherie Lunghie as Beatrice. Katherine Levy certainly makes the most of Hero, turning in a very strong and forthright portrayal of what is an underwritten and rather weak character. Jon Finch plays Don Pedro as an arrogant lord who enjoys his scheming and gossiping. It is a good portrayal, but I missed the compassion of Denzel Washington in the same role.Micheal Elphick certainly makes a plausible and by-and-large comprehensible Dogberry, though I thought he could have done more with the character's malapropisms to get more humour out of the character.This version uses much more of the original text than the popular movie, so the pace is somewhat slower, and now and again the period setting looks a little bit tacky.That said, lovers of Shakespearean comedy should find little wrong with this.

beauvallet Lindsay and Lunghi bring to light previously unknown facets to the two well-known characters of Benedict and Beatrice, and have a kind of sympatico that makes their sudden love for each other more believable than is generally found in other versions of Much Ado. They are bolstered by a marvelous supporting cast. This production far exceeds Branagh's film version in acting, but suffers when the production values are compared, an unfair comparison since Branagh had the luxury of actually making a film on location while this BBC edition is a teleplay.