Macbeth
1 Oct, 2020
820 English and Old English literatures
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies. When three witches prophesy that Macbeth will be king one day, he is not prepared to wait and almost the next day he murders King Duncan as he sleeps, a guest at Macbeth’s castle. From there we explore their brutal world where few boundaries are distinct - between safe and unsafe, friend and foe, real and unreal, man and beast - until Macbeth too is slaughtered.
The image above shows Nicol Williamson as Macbeth in a 1983 BBC TV adaptation.
Guests
- Emma Smith
5 episodes
Professor of Shakespeare Studies at Hertford College, University of Oxford -
Kiernan Ryan No other episodes
Emeritus Professor of English Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London -
David Schalkwyk No other episodes
Professor of Shakespeare Studies and Director of Global Shakespeare at Queen Mary, University of London
Reading list
-
Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human
Harold Bloom (Fourth Estate, 1999) Google Books → -
Shakespearean Tragedy: Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth
A. C. Bradley (Penguin Books, 1991) Google Books → -
Autobiographical Sketches
Thomas de Quincey (Dodo Press, 2008) Google Books → -
Macbeth: A Critical Reader
John Drakakis and Dale Townshend (eds.) (Bloomsbury, 2013) Google Books → -
Shakespeare After Theory
David Scott Kastan (Routledge, 1999) Google Books → -
Macbeth
William Shakespeare (ed. Sandra Clark and Pamela Mason) (The Arden Shakespeare: Bloomsbury, 2015) Google Books → -
1606: William Shakespeare and the Year of Lear
James Shapiro (Faber & Faber, 2015) Google Books → -
Macbeth: Contemporary Critical Essays
Alan Sinfield (ed.) (Macmillan, 1992) Google Books → -
Macbeth: Language and Writing
Emma Smith (The Arden Shakespeare: Bloomsbury, 2013) Google Books → -
Macbeth: A Selection of Critical Essays
John Wain (ed.) (Macmillan, 1968) Google Books → -
Actors on Shakespeare: Macbeth
Harriet Walter (Faber & Faber, 2002)
Related episodes
-
Romeo and Juliet
17 Feb, 2022 820 English and Old English literatures -
Hamlet
28 Dec, 2017 820 English and Old English literatures -
The Divine Right of Kings
11 Oct, 2007 320 Political science -
Lear
28 Feb, 2008 820 English and Old English literatures -
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
18 Apr, 2019 820 English and Old English literatures -
Machiavelli and the Italian City States
9 Dec, 2004 320 Political science -
The Tempest
14 Nov, 2013 820 English and Old English literatures -
The Glencoe Massacre
21 Jan, 2010 940 History of Europe -
Elizabethan Revenge
18 Jun, 2009 820 English and Old English literatures -
Is Shakespeare History? The Plantagenets
11 Oct, 2018 820 English and Old English literatures -
The Bacchae
18 Mar, 2021 880 Classical and modern Greek literatures -
The Monarchy
10 Jun, 1999 940 History of Europe -
The Battle of Bosworth Field
26 Apr, 2012 940 History of Europe -
Tristan and Iseult
31 Dec, 2015 800 Literature, rhetoric and criticism -
The Tudor State
26 Oct, 2000 940 History of Europe -
Julius Caesar
2 Oct, 2014 930 History of the Ancient World -
The Trial of Charles I
4 Jun, 2009 940 History of Europe -
The Salem Witch Trials
26 Nov, 2015 970 History of North America -
Faust
23 Dec, 2004 800 Literature, rhetoric and criticism -
The Death of Elizabeth I
15 Oct, 2009 900 History
Programme ID: m000mytn
Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000mytn
Auto-category: 822.33 (English drama)