Shakespeare USA: The BBC Plays and American Education

Abstract

B ORN IN THE BICENTENNIAL FERVOR OF 1976, it was to be grand AngloAmerican enterprise, cultural equivalent of Normandy landing, Lend-Lease Act, and Marshall Plan all rolled into one. The British Broadcasting Corporation and Time-Life Television would produce all plays in special made-for-television productions tailored to general audiences. Designed to be enduring and easily understood, productions would deliberately adhere to plain style: William Shakespeare wrote his plays to please an audience that was neither very sophisticated nor literary, said Shaun Sutton, head of BBC's television drama group, and we hope to bring back these plays on same plain terms to mass audience that would have astounded Shakespeare. Undoubtedly, project will have wide educational future; but primarily, plays will be presented as they were first conceived-as entertainment.I Underwriters for $13.6 million venture were to be three corporate giants: Exxon Corporation, Morgan Guaranty Trust Company of New York, and Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) would supply funding for ancillary educational activities, including special programs on National Public Radio. And WNET/Thirteen in New York would coordinate broadcasts and educational outreach in United States. Pointing out that American funding came to only $100,000 play, WNET President John Jay Iselin accurately summed up high hopes with which series began, calling it the great Anglo-American alliance of twentieth century. Iselin predicted that it would bring about a Shakespeare Renaissance and special educational experience for generation of Americans. 2 Such were high spirits that inspired unusual collaboration of television