In Search of Shakespeare: Reviews
Here are some reviews from 'across the pond', following the successful transmission of In Search of Shakespeare on PBS this Spring (2004):
"Wood enunciates as clearly as any Shakespearean actor, announcing his series as 'an historical detective story, an Elizabethan whodunit.'"
David Gitten, LA Times
"Wood reveals a Shakespeare as well-drawn as one of his characters: adventurous, passionate, deceptive and poignant."
"Wood's trek reveals as much about modern England as it does about its past, building a seamless, invisible bridge between past and present."
Carina Chocano, LA Times
"... a colorful travelogue of fact and guesswork"
Misha Berson, Seattle Times
"Refreshingly, political tales and anecdotes raise the bar of quality in a new docu about Shakespeare"
The Hollywood Reporter
"Michael Wood is so eager for us to see William Shakespeare as our contemporary that he might have called his BBC series 'Shakespeare, He Da Man'"
The Boston Globe
"Wood paints a provocative portrait"
The Washington Post Book World
Meanwhile, back at home:
"A television historian has got closer to the real Shakespeare than many an academic.."
"In Search of Shakespeare was written in conjunction with his forthcoming 4-part series on BBC2. It is a great pleasure to report that, thanks to the author's gifts as story-teller, populariser and interpreter of the past, Shakespeare's world is brought alive more vividly than in any other biography of him that I have read."
Jonathan Bate (author : Shakespeare and Ovid) Sunday Telegraph 12/6
"Wood is a perceptive, entertaining and enthusiastic companion. His account of the late plays conjures a poignant farewell to a playwright we would love to have known..."
"On the question of whether Shakespeare was a secret Catholic, Wood is at his eloquent best. He describes vividly the insecurity of the changing times..."
Ferdinand Mount - Sunday Times 18/5/03
"Michael Wood evokes the physical and intellectual environment in which Shakespeare lived and worked with vivid and original immediacy."
Professor Stanley Wells, Editor of The Oxford Shakespeare
"...Wood offers us real-life, modern-day commentators who offer a direct conduit between our own age and Shakespeare's..."
"...At its very best, In Search of Shakespeare makes you feel that you can reach through your TV screen and touch history.."
Lyn Barber - The Guardian 23/6/03
"...an engrossing four-parter which will be a revelation to most people..."
"Perhaps the most impressive achievement has been to produce four hours of history programming without resorting to a single reconstruction. So you can watch it safe in the knowledge that you won't have a fit of sniggers at the sight of a shockingly bad wig or the low-lying mists and smouldering fires used to disguise modern mise en scene..."
Alkarim Jivani - Time Out - 25/6/03
"The resulting mix of fascinating information and intelligent guesswork duly made for a superb documentary..."
"After all these years, Wood still has the knack of being both educational and entertaining. Better still, in his hands these are not separate elements. On Saturday, his belief that finding things out can be a source of real pleasure in itself was vindicated once again."
James Walton - Daily Telegraph - 30/6/03
"It's the best take on Shakespeare we're likely to see, so why isn't it on BBC1?"
Radio Times - 28/6/03
"Heaven only knows why it's on BBC2, not BBC1..."
Sally Kinnes - Sunday Times - 22/6/03
"...what really makes this series glow, though, is the relish with which Wood takes us through the texture of Elizabethan life..."
"...the historian Michael Wood has taken us on a guided tour of Shakespeare's world, into which like some phantasmogoric magician, he conjures up a speculative projection of what might have been going on in the life of the most famous writer in history ... the overall effect is utterly absorbing.."
Paul Hoggart - The Times - 30/6/03
"...Wood finds interesting shading in the overlit auditorium of Shakespeare studies..."
Sunday Times - 22/6/03
"...impressive new series..."
"With beautiful, bucolic images, snippets of theatrical performances and intelligent interpretation of a wealth of sources, this is a rich start to what looks like shaping up to be an excellent series..."
Daily Mail - 21/6/03
"Where there's a way there's a Wood. Forget twitchy Simon Schama, fogeyish David Starkey and callow Tristram Hunt - TV's dishiest historian is Michael Wood. The four-part series In Search of Shakespeare is top rate investigative journalism. Engrossing and in keeping with his previous work, Wood makes his subject accessible without dumbing down..."
Choice Magazine - Monthly Review - June 2003
"For those who see Shakespeare as little more than a purveyor of gobbledegook, his actual verse isn't given too much time here, but that said, those who appreciate the great poet's magic will not be disappointed either..."
TV Times - 28/6/03
"Wood just doesn't do dull."
Radio Times - 5/7/03
"The programme conveys a real sense of a young man at his peak and a feel for time and place that is as earthy as a groundling."
Sunday Times - 29/6/03