Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of Shakespeare's most popular works, written c1595 in the last years of Elizabeth I. It is a comedy of love and desire and their many complications as well as their simplicity, and a reflection on society's expectations and limits. It is also a quiet critique of Elizabeth and her vulnerability and on the politics of the time, and an exploration of the power of imagination.
With
Helen Hackett Professor of English Literature and Leverhulme Research Fellow at University College London
Tom Healy Professor of Renaissance Studies at the University of Sussex
and
Alison Findlay Professor of Renaissance Drama at Lancaster University and Chair of the British Shakespeare Association
Producer: Simon Tillotson