Episode 47 - The Fictional Shakespeare

Shakespeare may have penned some of the most memorable characters, from Shylock to Hamlet to King Lear, but he's also shown up as a character himself over the years. This episode we are looking at a different kind of Shakespeare, the man created for the screen (both big and small), and the various tropes and modes of interpretation that show up over and over again. We look to have fun with a character that many others also have fun with - the legend turned tangible: the fictional Shakespeare.

List of Works Discussed:

Black Adder "Back and Forth" Special

Doctor Who "The Shakespeare Code"

Good Omens "Hard Times"

Upstart Crow

Anonymous

All is True

Shakespeare in Love

Notes:

Kyle Kallgren, aka the Brows Held High YouTube channel, has a great analysis of Roland Emmerich's 2011 Anonymous which we reference several times in the episode.

The Brows Held High video on Shakespeare in Love is also great.

Liza Tarbuck is the actress who plays Anne Hathaway so well in Upstart Crow.

Larry David's WGA award acceptance speech is frankly great.

Aidan was way off - the Globe Theatre was not used in the filming of Shakespeare in Love, but instead a studio set was built to show the Rose Theatre (which would have been the one Romeo & Juliet was performed in, duh).

Ancient Bickerings:

This episode we went for one non-bickering and one bickering in our back and forth discussion. Our two questions were:

If you were to write Shakespeare as a fictional character, what would it look like?

Which of the fictionalized Shakespeare's discussed would you most like to have a beer with?