Simon Schama's Shakespeare

Available on

BBC Two

British historian Simon Schama presents his view that it is impossible to understand how Shakespeare came to belong `to all time', without understanding just how much he was of his time. Shakespeare explored questions that are still asked today: What is this England? What makes this nation? Schama details how in his history plays Shakespeare created a vision of England that still rings true today. He also asks how far Shakespeare's most profound tragedies, including Richard II, Hamlet, Macbeth and King Lear, were inspired by his own experience of writing for the courts of Elizabeth and James I.