Comments by "Helen Trope" (@heliotropezzz333) on "BBC" channel.

  1. 0.22. She looks at him like he should be impressed but as soon as he's impressed she starts to try reining him back.
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  2. The Duchess threatened her with revenge at the end but the Queen is very hard and devious. I think the tears weren't real but just part of playing the victim to justify whatever happens to the Duchess afterwards.
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  3.  @theflyingstonemason6867  Sorry I didn't want to bring back bad memories, just ensure your comment was understood because in its original form I believed it implied the opposite of what you intended.
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  4. Merkel's expressive face is great. I love some of the looks she gave Trump in real life.
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  5. 'Sister stay away from the buffet'. Well Prince didn't look as though he ate much himself.
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  6. Why is Market Black?
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  7. ' Well at this distance'.... Cromwell knows that Henry has set an easy distance for himself so that he can look good.
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  8. Chococo Chen. But all over the world Shakespeare plays are converted into different settings and different cultures and times. That's the nature of Shakespeare and drama. It's universal in scope and nature. That's why it's still relevant today when other plays from his time are forgotten.
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  9. Mande Loo You were meant to understand that it was fake. This is a powerful woman one minute, pretending to be the victim the next. This is a public demonstration, so that the downfall of the Gloucesters that follows from this scene is understood and accepted by the Court.
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  10. She's often the only adult in the room.
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  11. +sylv sylv You need to compare it to what went before. A small very rich elite governed a large class of people who mostly lived in abject poverty and slavery. They were sent into wars to die and saw how much better people in other countries lived so it made a political movement that espoused more equality sound attractive to them. The revolution threw up "unexpected" problems as it basically created a different elite which was murderous by the time that Stalin was leader. Karl Marx did not foresee that communism would take off in poor rural countries like Russia. He always thought that developed industrial countries with more democratic institutions would be the first to espouse communism.
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  12. Fred C. It depends on whether the race of the person is crucial to the story. Shakespeare makes points about power in his plays that are relevant beyond his time. His plays are not pure history. They're not totally accurate as history. He changed things for dramatic effect and to please the regime of his time. Modern dramatists do the same with Shakespeare's plays to make them more relevant to a modern audience.
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  13. So colour is the most important thing to you?. Never mind that she's a great actress and gives a good performance. Shakespeare used men to play women's parts. Laurence Olivier and Orson Welles played a black character in Shakespeare's play Othello. Drama is not the same as documentary or history. Have you actually watched these plays?
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  14. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery
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  15. I don't think it was treason. Cromwell here is made to sound as if he tried to avoid more bloodshed than there was. Whether it was down to him I don't know. Henry just needed to save face by having a scapegoat to blame for the failed marriage with Anne of Cleves. Henry detested being humiliated or feeling that he was. Also I suspect, as he had his eye on marriage with Catherine Howard, that Cromwell's enemy, Catherine's Uncle Norfolk, was working on Henry behind the scenes to procure his downfall, Gardiner too, I imagine.
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  16. She's a good actress and plays the part well. That's all that matters.
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  17. You got your wish. She was made a Dame a month ago.
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  18.  @Io-Io-Io  Only very close friends can talk to each other like that and get away with it - English humour among close friends. The others didn't react with horror.
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  19. Katherine Koelker. I don't think this particular conflict between the women results in the battle for the throne, because this incident is between Lancastrians, whereas the battle for the throne was between Yorkists and Lancastrians. The Duchess of Gloucester gets accused of witchcraft and is imprisoned or exiled for that. Gloucester is imprisoned and murdered. Sorry for the spoilers.
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  20. Shakespeare was never about historical accuracy but about stories and drama which have universal themes, so his plays are often produced in modern times in different eras and settings with different types of cast. Those who criticise this casting are not real fans of Shakespeare I think and don't watch his plays much.
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  21. If it's the kind of thing where historical accuracy is important, but Shakespeare always played around with history. It's drama not historical fact. Shakespeare plays have been set in a variety of times with a variety of actors. There have been all male players and all female players and a Macbeth set in Nazi times etc etc
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  22. P.S. Julius Caesar has been played by people who were not Italian, Shylock has been played by people who are not Jewish and Othello has been played by people who are not black.
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  23. In his own humble opinion.
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  24. Should've entered strictly come dancing next.
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  25. Boris was a bit of fun but what did he do for people compared to the other mayors? He was a bit useless. Livingstone introduced the Oyster card and congestion charging and tackled Margaret Thatcher over rising unemployment. Sadiq Khan has introduced 2 for one bus journeys and capped some TfL fares with plans to do more. People should vote for policies and actions rather than personalities.
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  26. What has Hugh Grant got to do with Remington Steele? That was Pierce Brosnan.
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  27. Noel is more articulate.
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  28. Vamanos Ninja The tabloids were involved in a phone hacking scandal. Basically they were illegally hacking into people's private phone messages (mostly celebrities) in order to dig up things to write about them in the tabloids. The worst of it was when they hacked into the phone of a young woman who was a murder victim, and because of their activities on her phone it led her parents falsely to think she was still alive.
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  29. No. Quite Brummie!
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  30. Heatherrfc You can probably have it if you ask her. It's a false one.
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  31. No it sounds Irish to me. She had Irish parents and so did I.
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  32. She says 'Am I bothered (which she pronounces bovvered)?' but she says it in what she thinks is Shakespearian style 'Am'st I bovvered?'
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  33. No the Lancastrians won. Henry Tudor was a Lancastrian. He chose to marry Elizabeth of York to end the battles for the throne, but over the years both he and his son Henry VIII had all of the surviving male Yorkists with a genetic claim to the throne killed and some of the female Yorkists were also executed such as George Duke of Clarence's daughter Margaret Pole even though she was an old woman at the time.
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  34. They aren't that accurate. Henry VI was not that handsome. Richard III's hair is wrong (too modern, not long enough). Edward IV looks too short.
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  35. There are hundreds of complaining comments here. Are you too lazy to read them?
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  36. You're probably pretty well a nazi already then. Didn't you know? This is not site for comments from Shakespeare lovers, but for petty minded racists - judging by the comments anyway. Most wouldn't know Shakespeare if he bit them on the backside.
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  37. It's recorded in front of a live audience. The laughter is not canned.
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  38. How did Boris do a good job? What exactly did he do or achieve for ordinary Londoners? Livingstone introduced Oyster cards and the congestion charge. Sadiq Khan has introduced two for the price of one bus journeys and frozen some TfL fares with plans to do more on fares and build more assordable housing . Boris was just a comedian.
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  39.  @Io-Io-Io  I watched it again and observed Palin. He laughed when Cleese called Jones a 'doddery old idiot'. When Cleese questioned Jones's reference to 'other people' Palin just looked confused as if he was trying to think what Terry Jones meant. I watched through and didn't see any disapproving expression on Palin's face. Generally women are more observant than men. Ask and scientist who has researched this.
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  40.  @antonkider7360  or the most ignorant
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  41. Queen Margaret was seen as a foreigner in England. Though she was French, Sophie Okonedo's background acts as a metaphor for that sense of difference.
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  42. Julia Lawless, Well I do remember seeing a British TV show when I was young, about some Japanese legends, and all the characters were played by English actors in Japanese costume, make up and wigs. I enjoyed it very much for what it was. I didn't think too much about how appropriate the casting was. Even today, black actors get fewer opportunities to play some good roles, when the stories come from white history, so I really don't mind them being involved. I think it helps bring the stories alive for wider audiences. Margaret of Anjou was disliked and distrusted for being a foreigner (French) so although the actress isn't French her casting does help to accentuate that she's from a different background to the others. It's a sort of metaphor, and she acts the part so well. I very much enjoyed a TV show called "Versailles" where the main characters, the French King and his brother, were played by English actors and the show was in English (with French subtitles in France). Other actors came from England, Canada and France.The French TV company decided they needed to show it to the widest possible audiences internationally because the cost of making it was so high and they could sell it to more countries if it was in English.
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  43.  @Io-Io-Io  So now you seem to agree about women generally being more observant (contrary to your previous comment) but only to state something else against women. You like sweeping misogynist generalisations it seems. Good luck in life with that attitude.
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  44. +Onionbagel She gives a good performance though.
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  45. Harvey never preyed on older established actresses, only younger more vulnerable ones that he felt were more dependent on him for their career.
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  46. It's not a laugh track. It's recorded in front of a live audience.
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  47. The sad fact is the people vote for personalities and usually haven't a clue what the policies of all the main candidates are because they haven't bothered to read what's in the manifestos. Boris was good at giving planning permission to tall buildings and housing for the wealthy.
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  48. Written by Ben Elton who is a great fan of Shakespeare, a comedic writer and who probably writes with David Mitchell's talents in mind.
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  49. Henry Sims. Since when was the Duchess a "he"?
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  50. TheLine. There was no sugar then and women were more active.
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  51.  @BalkanMode  Oh lighten up and join the 21st century. I'm sure they said that the first time women were allowed on stage. Shakespeare had to use men dressed as women of course.
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  52. You need to know a bit about Shakespeare and his plays to get the jokes, but not too much. They missed off the punchline here where the "posh boy" sees Kate and immediately forgets his obsession with Rosaline (as does Romeo in R&J).
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  53. OctoV70. Don't watch it then, if you don't like it. Your dramatic "suspension of disbelief" isn't working. Juliet in Romeo and Juliet is usually played by someone much older than 13 years but people don't usually complain.
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  54.  Smith kean  I notice you are dropping this same message around this comments page but sadly it's misleading to suggest that herbs can cure cancer . Look up Barry Sheene and Kathy Acker.
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  55. It's not a laughter track. It's filmed in front of a live studio audience.
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  56. So do they have to go to Anjou and find someone who looks like a typical Anjou woman?
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  57. and witty
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  58. It's great that a Shakespeare play is getting so many views. So many Shakespeare fans!
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  59. Don't pigeonhole her. I've seen her do some great tragic parts on stage. She's funny in real life and can do comedy and comedic acting but she is a serious actress too. Very versatile actually.
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  60. +Say That's probably the part when she is quoting a sonnet from Shakespeare.
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  61. +Anastasia Novikova Tell us some authors names so we know. I like Turgenev, Gogol, Solzhenitsyn as well as Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky.
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  62. Adarcus Who is manipulating him? Richard was once a boy King and may have been manipulated then but not when he was an adult. He was not a very good King except in his support of the arts and unlike Henry IV who ousted him, he did not persecute heretics, but Shakespeare makes him sympathetic when he loses power.
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  63. Centurion. It's certainly not a joke. It's a good performance and you forget about the casting if you watch the whole thing and get involved with it. Also the character she's playing was regarded with suspicion and dislike, being a foreigner (French). Though Sophie isn't French her casting acts as a good metaphor for people perceiving her different background at the time
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  64. Many comments about the casting, almost none about the play, from people who've not watched the whole play I suspect. In some castings, like that of Harriet Tubman, the race of the character is important to the drama but it's not crucial in this play for Margaret. She was regarded as a foreigner anyway as she was French but it's not crucial that she be played by a French woman.
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  65.  @KIWIchix0r  ??? A boar is a male pig. There are no pigs among the images. Angelica Houston is one of the ewes (female sheep).
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  66. Sometimes you don't realise the true size of someone until you see them sitting next to someone else. Taylor Swift looks enormous next to James all the others on the couch when you see the full shot.
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  67.  @justaghoulintheworld  What has your comment got to do with anything or are you just some random Putin fanicer?
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  68. When people's comments are only about the casting of Queen Margaret, you know that they know nothing about Shakespeare or his plays and in all likelihood they've not watched the full play.
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  69. I would not mind if the performance was good, after all nationality is not necessarily denoted by skin colour these days. Art and Theatre is all about challenging assumptions and prejudices isn't it?
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  70. In one series (series 1?), a girl blew something similar at a horse Tommy was riding. I think that was for luck. I doubt this one was for luck.
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  71. Iambic
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  72. David Walliams is a comedian. That was an act. He wasn't serious.
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  73. It's not canned laughter though. It's filmed in front of a live studio audience.
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  74. Shakespeare was never an accurate source of history. As a dramatist he was more interested in the drama of his stories.
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  75. I think it's about widening the audience for plays like this, not just in Britain but internationally (in the US for instance). It's played more as a drama than a strict history. If it was a history programme I'm sure they wouldn't be so flexible with the casting.
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  76.  @BalkanMode  It doesn't matter in drama unless the role specifically requires a certain race because the story is about racism.
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  77. Shakespeare never portrayed history as accurately as possible. This is drama not history.
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  78. And the government was clueless from then on.
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  79. That's right. He he's not meant to be a cartoon goodie or baddie but a complex man like many others.
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  80. +Jillyy *boring
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  81. +London Para She starts to speak London slang in a Shakespearian way - so when he threatens to fail her she starts saying "Am'st I bothered (pronouncing all the syllables in bothered -meaning Am I bothered?) In other words she is not worried by his threat. Is this the bothered face thou sees before thee? Looketh at my face" etc etc
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  82. PrincessRandomgirl33 No it does not mean that. It means she's not bothered (in other words she does not care).
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  83. Much of the humour is ironical if you know any of Shakespeare's work or studied it at school or know anything about the history. It's not meant to be belly laugh slapstick, and maybe some of it does not connect with people who know little about Shakespeare or don't enjoy his work.
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  84. 'You take the high road and I'll take the low road.' It's a line from a famous Scottish song.
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  85. KC Miles.One historical description I read about Margaret was that her skin was quite tanned. She came from the South of France where it's hot. Also Okonedo does not look her age. She looks much younger.
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  86. It's recorded in front of a live audience.
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  87. HenrySims. Ha! Ha! Pardon me.
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  88. tubbyrainbow111. Not a classy comment from you though.
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  89. Evil etc. You do realise Shakespeare plays have been cast with all women, all men, transposed into modern settings, like Richard III done as a Nazi type dictator, and there has already been an all black Hamlet. Both Laurence Olivier and Orson Welles played Othello, who is a black character. One of the reasons Shakespeare plays remain popular and relevant is that they speak to very human issues and to all times. The answer for those who don't like the casting is not to watch it, but hey, this version's proved popular. Here's are clips from a modern/traditional style TV series about Shakespeare's life shown not long ago on US TV (TNT channel), (the music is not from the show) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MCwIRarv0Q
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  90. If you read informative news sites, you'd see that the government has given itself the power to force people to isolate if they have the Coronavirus or even they've come from a country which is of concern. However if a lot of people refuse to isolate, you wonder whether there would be the resources to take action on them.
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  91.  @Rakkeyal  Me too. I've hardly recognise my old comments. It's as if they were written by someone else - someone more intelligent than me.
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  92. No it's because she's a good actress and deserves the part. This is a drama not a history.
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  93. MuscleAlphaMale. No, it's a Shakespeare play but not a "recreation of history". Shakespeare was not averse to changing the facts of history if it provided better drama. Many of these people look nothing like the historical characters they are playing. Henry VI is too handsome. Richard III does not have the right hairstyle and does not have scoliosis. Edward IV doesn't look tall enough. Elizabeth Woodville's hair should be blond instead of red. They don't talk like medieval people either. The clothes are made using modern materials but it's a great drama nonetheless.
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  94. Matty Browne. It depends which side of the divide you come from, but she knows where she lives.
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  95. How many people visited this site because they enjoy a good Shakespeare play?
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  96.  @fenriz218  It's not a farce. Why do people get so wound up about casting? In Shakespeare's time they watched women characters played by men. This is a drama not an accurate history.
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  97. How does this translate into other languages I wonder?
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  98. * "poppet" is a term of endearment. Did you mean "puppet"? Forget it, I've lost interest.
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  99. sean locheed. Firstly you need to say who your comment is to. An eye for an eye is about vengeance and retribution. I can't see the relevance of that comment. If you are saying the casting is not o.k. I would say it's such a small thing I can't understand why people are getting worked up about it.
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  100. noti tuz Or a Japanese Macbeth (see Throne of Blood) Or an American or English Hamlet or Romeo. Tut tut.
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  101.  @steffanhoffmann8937  Based on scientific research I'm afraid. It doesn't mean every woman is more observant than every man. It's a generalisation. It may not be their sex per se which has made women more observant, but rather their historic position in societies which means they have been allowed to speak less so observe more. Or it may be that historically they have been more responsible for the care and safety of children, and are therefore more alert to non verbal signals, and what they might mean, as they are on the lookout for danger. Perhaps more equality will mean they become less observant, who knows.
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  102. +sylv sylv About 60 million people died in WW2 - 20 million of them in Soviet Russia. It's estimated that Stalin was responsible for another 20 million deaths on top of those who died in WW2. So ultimately Hitler is responsible for more deaths than Stalin but it's not an enviable record in either case.
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  103. What muricans?
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  104. Her Shakespearean language is better than yours anyway.
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  105. When we went to Venice we also explored the backstreets - very atmospheric, and the islands that you can reach by Vaporetto as well as the Lido. It's all great.
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  106.  @daredemontriple6  I visited Henry's ship 'The Mary Rose' and in that exhibition you get the chance to try out a longbow. It requires some strength to pull it but boys and men of this time were required to engage in regular practice with the longbow. Apparently it caused muscles on one side to become larger than the other.
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  107. She does her as well.
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  108. Sorry but the Brexiteers are the stupid ones. They think things will be better out of the Union. They'll be worse.
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  109.  @fatfat1877  Explanation: We'll be down the plughole if we try leaving without a deal just on WTO terms. No country in the world trades just on WTO terms because in trading terms it's the 4th division. They all want deals with a big trading block which is the premier division which is where we are now. It's a bit of a myth that the EU controls us. There are some rules of membership but 99% of what the UK spends is determined by the UK government. So what happens if we go to no deal WTO terms? We have to then set a tariff for trading with the world and under WTO terms it has to be the same tariff for everyone we trade with in the same goods. If we set a tariff that will push prices up for UK consumers and we'll be worse off. If we set a zero tariff (possible under the rules) our farming and manufacturing won't be able to compete with cheap imports from countries where workers have no rights and are paid pennies an hour so our farming and manufacturing industries will be destroyed. Don't just take my word for it. Patrick Minford, an economist who is for a hard Brexit says the same about the future of British farming and manufacturing. It will affect other economic sectors also. Wealthy people like ex stockbroker Farage and Jacob Rees Mogg will be raking it in because WTO rules do not regulate financial systems and they will be even more free to squirrel away their profits to tax havens around the world. Also over 80% of our exports are services and 49% of those are to the EU. The day we hard Brexit, those services with lose their 'passport' rights to European EU countries, which is why businesses are talking about moving their headquarters to the Europe. The very people who want Brexit because they are suffering under the present government's austerity programme, will be stuffed even more under no deal Brexit. None of this was explained before the Referendum by a campaign that wasn't even talking about a no deal Brexit. As for getting trade deals, as a member of the EU, we have over 40 trade deals that will no longer apply the day we go out on no deal and there are only a handful lined up to replace them. Trade deals take years to negotiate because they are complex covering everything traded between countries. Trump is protectionist and the US is a larger economy than ours, and if we want a trade deal with the USA it will be very much on his terms, as he doesn't need to deal. His negotiators have already said they want access to NHS funding for their corporations as part of the deal and for us to take their farming products like chlorine washed chicken and hormone fed beef - practices currently banned by the EU. China and Russia are not our friends and in any case they don't allow countries to export freely to theirs. They are protectionist. Asian countries have each other to trade with nearby. The only thing India wants from us is more visas for people to come here. Other countries won't make up for the loss of the big trading area on our doorstep (the EU). The way out of our problems is to vote for a party that will do something about inequality in the UK and protect jobs and trade, and that's not the Tories or the Brexit party. Farage has stated he is for replacing the NHS with an insurance based market system. He is for taking restrictions off the sale of handguns and he has other right wing policies too. If we set a zero tariff, that would be zero for EU trade also, except as outsiders the EU would be placing a tariff on us (could be 40%). That would make us uncompetitive in trading with the EU. You can't just count the cost of trading with the EU in terms of our subscriptions. You have to count the benefits to the economy too and the health and welfare of people to get the whole picture.
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  110. It made the situation worse for her because she lost her majority and was reliant on a deal with the DUP after that.
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  111.  @stormbringer2840  I think you'd find, if you watched this particular version, that you would be immersed and forget the casting. They obviously chose her because she's a good actress and didn't want Shakespeare to be racially exclusive, but actually the casting acts as a good metaphor because Queen Margaret was distrusted by the English because she was 'foreign' and moreover from a nation that had been England's enemy for a long time. When Henry married her, as part of the contract he gave away to the French most of the English possessions in France that his ancestors had fought so hard for.
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  112. Smash Mouth. You are another one who hasn't read the hundreds of whinging comments here about the casting
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  113. Oh thanks for that. I didn't recognise Dudley Dursley.
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  114. Letters are potentially incriminating evidence. Things can be said in meetings that can't be put in letters (assuming no one's taking minutes). Anyway they all lived near each other at court
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  115.  @Lorrdd  At the time it was a scandal. Norfolk took a mistress who was basically a servant of his so he'd no right to look down his nose at Cromwell.
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  116. Most of the comments in this section are about the casting of the Queen and the colour of her skin. Very few are about the play itself. Don't bother reading them unless you are fixated on the former like the rest of the commenters.
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  117. I was looking at booking a hotel recently and when I read in people's comments that you have to 'Whats App' reception, it put me off booking there (among other bad reviews).
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  118. It stands for giving good performers a chance to play Shakespeare.
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  119. or perhaps he could be played by an Etonian Gamer.
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  120.  @josephmurray4084  Reflecting much internal thoughts through facial expressions but in a more subtle naturalistic way. Perhaps.
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  121.  @datgrrl_official  No it's not. British is officially and legally the nationality. Britain is a nation of nations . Look at your passport if you have one. It will be British. It's silly to get hysterical over such terms.
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  122.  @gavinbissell8847  They select them to be representative, so they say. I'm not sure how they do it though. Perhaps they rely on people's honesty in declaring their political affiliations or no affiliations. They advertise the phone number and other contact details for members of the public to request tickets.
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  123. *Walliams
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  124.  @stevekaczynski3793  Agreed.
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  125. It's sad that he somehow expects Brexit to be a good thing for him, rather than realising it will take away opportunities for him
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  126.  @ByronHawk  You have to allow for different tastes.
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  127. +London Para You're welcome. She also says "You take the high road and I'll take the low road" in a Scottish accent, which is a line from a traditional Scottish song and she finishes by quoting a sonnet by Shakespeare."
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  128. *to sing
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  129. +TheSpeedyLime When he was young he seemed very shy and he's probably naturally quite a private person.. I think he still has that underneath and it seems like he's had a few drinks to give him courage "to perform" but it also makes him seem slow in his responses.
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  130. But she died having plastic surgery, and the more surgery, the more plastic people look.
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  131.  @ScottD_  Thanks, I looked it up. It looked like a rather botched set of routine procedures with the medics not paying much attention to her vital signs. She suffered a cardiac arrest and was revived but died a week later.
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  132. It's not a laugh track.
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  133.  @steffanhoffmann8937  What is?
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  134. Adarcus ? Richard was already the King when he drew the sword.
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  135. *did sing
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  136. Hans Tun. Everyone's a winner!
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  137. gog *descent. Decent is something else.
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  138. Glenda Jackson has just been cast to play the lead in King Lear and I'm sure she will be wonderful. I recently heard her on the radio playing a character in stories by Emile Zola and her voice has lost none of it's subtlety and power. These plays have been played endless times and a twist on the character and casting, from time to time, just adds to the depth, power and variety.
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  139. * It's spelt 'semitic' not 'semetic'
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  140. There are different types of flexible contracts some where people can chose their hours and others where they can't and may find they have no hours at all at times. I think this discussion is muddling the two things up. Zero hours contracts are highly risky and the risk is all on the employee not the employer. Also if you have no control over your hours you can't plan your life. You can't be sure of picking children up from school or what days off you might have in future, so you can't plan for any time off.
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  141. This isn't a historical movie. It's a Shakespeare play. Shakespeare played around with historical facts and in modern times people have payed around with Shakespeare plays. I don't think this casting is for PC reasons. She's good and merits the part.
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  142. She just wanted to make sure Mary included all the funny bits.
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  143. *Walliams
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  144. Evil etc It's *more than, not more then. (Learn your own language properly, if you are going to be so culturally precious). I don't care who plays who in a Shakespeare play as long as they are a good actor/actress. It's a drama and real Shakespeare fans know that the settings and casting are often varied or modernised when these plays are enacted. All the race complainers here are not Shakespeare fans I suspect. Queen Margaret was a "foreigner" in England and distrusted as such. Though she was French and Sophie Okonedo is not, the casting still works as a metaphor for her difference.
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  145.  @snipper1ie  To my mind a King, originally, was a warrior leader of a group of people who were able to defend themselves successfully, conquer land and steal cattle. When it became hereditary I'm not too sure. Irish Kings in Celtic times were an exception. They were elected and had to be perfect in body, but they paid the penalty if there was a drought or a famine. They would be sacrificed to the gods, and a different one elected. I'm not sure whether the Welsh had the same ritual.
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  146. Ja
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  147.  @oldskoolrools3087  No one's 'throwing money'. It's an investment in children who are the nation's future - an investment any wealthy and civilized nation would make. Your arguments about having children to get more benefits... did you not know that the Tories limited child benefit to 2 children only. The number of children in poverty has grown since the Tories have been in power, so you are saying it's o.k for the Tories to allow things to get worse and sit on their hands doing nothing about it? A hungry child can't wait for complex policy tinkering to work its way through. I believe there's an Indian charity that has offered to support hungry kids in Britian.
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  148. Phillipa Gregory's book the White Queen is a novel and this series is based on her book, but I was referring to Alison Weir who is a historian. She wrote Lancaster and York; The Wars of the Roses.
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  149.  @fatfat1877  You're great at missing the point. You can place tariffs on the EU and the EU can place tariffs on us and that will make the cost of living higher for British consumers. How is that a benefit to the ordinary person? Yes the government SAY they've been working on deals but that's not the same as having deals ready. Deals can take many years to negotiate and how many do we have in hand to replace the 40 plus that we'll lose as part of the EU - not more than a handful. You really are not listening so I'll have to leave you in your world of make believe as you're so reluctant to leave it.
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  150. MRWorldGuy. No the drama is very good. Have you watched it? I doubt that people getting upset at the casting of one person, on the grounds of race, are Shakespeare fans or enjoy watching Shakespeare. They're just here to moan about their favourite bugbear.
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  151. MRWorldGuy. It does matter to me whether you are a Shakespeare fan because I'm sick of every video featuring a black person in public life being full of racist comments from idiots and haters, and that's the only reason they visit the site. If you were a Shakespeare fan you would not react this way because you would realise this is a drama not a history. Shakespeare was never completely accurate about history. He sometimes changed things for dramatic purposes or to please his sponsors. His plays are regarded as having universal themes, for instance here the themes are about conflict and power, and they have been played all over the world in different settings. For instance there's a version of Richard III played in modern uniforms with fascist overtones, but hundreds of fans did not post comments that it was all anachronistic because fascism didn't exist then. No, it's only race that seems to get some people hot under the collar. Genuine Shakespeare fans understand that these plays can be interpreted in different ways under different themes. His plays have been done in modern times with all male actors, all female actors and all black actors. They are not things set in stone for all time. I can understand why she was cast because she's a good actress so was cast on merit and also her race is a kind of metaphor for the fact that Margaret was a despised foreigner. Margaret was of course French but these days we don't hate the French so much, but there are plenty of race haters so it works in that sense.
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  152. MRWorldGuy I think they are racists because skin colour is all that bothers them. They don't comment that the actor playing Henry is too handsome or that Richard III's hair is wrong or any other historical inaccuracies. It doesn't bother them that Othello has been played by white actors. No, the only inaccuracy that bothers them is skin colour. Also you see this sort of thing all over the internet. Just look at any video featuring a black politician and the comments are not much about their policies but more about their race.
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  153. MRWorldGuy. If it's a history or race is an important factor in the story, I'd say it's important to be racially accurate. If it's a drama, of the Shakespearian kind which have been subject to experimentation in modern times e.g from the 1960s onwards, I'd say racial casting is not vital because people should be able to see beyond that to what the actress is representing. To be honest it's hard to get modern audiences interested in Shakespeare unless they can see some relevance to modern times. Baz Luhrman did a modern dress version of Romeo and Juliet for instance to make it more interesting for young people to relate to. I do remember when American indians were usually played by white actors with make up, in all those Westerns I watched as a child, so I think we should be a bit generous here.
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  154.  @stormbringer2840  I think you should read some of the other many comments. Shakespeare was never about accuracy. It's about stories and drama and people set his stories in all sorts of eras and settings with all sorts of casts. I think that people who criticise this casting are not really fans of Shakespeare and don't watch his plays. That's all I'm saying.
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  155. Brits also roll the eyes. Some do anyway.
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  156. It's Derry
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  157. They don't have any real power now. They are more entertainment value and tourist attraction. Imagine if the top person in the system was President Boris Johnson.
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  158. The camera man is scared of Henry.
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  159. To be fair she was glossing over it at first and the other guests and Graham, wanted to know more so brought the focus back to it..
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  160. If you work out the financial pros and cons of being in the EU the pros, in terms of economic advantage, public welfare and security outweigh the cons. The Tories always talk as if there's only one side to this equation, the cost side of it. Do we really want to drop down to USA consumer standards in order to trade with them? Here's an example of their appalling negligent standards https://edition.cnn.com/2019/10/17/health/baby-foods-arsenic-lead-toxic-metals-wellness/index.html
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  161. I think that's David's little joke about himself.
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  162. The nobodies are outshining him. Actually they are not nobodies just because you don't know who they are.
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  163. It's not a history programme. It's a drama and Shakespeare himself played fast and loose with historical facts in his dramas. It's a good performance too.
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  164.  @tlotpwist3417  Do you mean Richard III?
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  165. I suppose the first step is to have an interest in other people and their quirks.
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  166. She got the role because she is an excellent actress.
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  167. Do you have some examples? It's not a history, it's a novel so you would not expect complete accuracy, partly because the author would have to guess some scenes that are not recorded in history and partly because of dramatic licence. My surpise was how forthright Cromwell was sometimes in expressing his (unwelcome) views to Henry. Historically I don't think he would have dared.
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  168. He has some prosthetic make up.
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  169. +Jillyy No
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  170. A Shakespeare sonnet
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  171. Miles, It's not a shithole. How dare you! I'm sure only people who've never lived there say ignorant things like that.
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  172. +Brittany Hollander Who does he stare at?
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  173. Not really because it was all interesting
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  174.  @Shane-Flanagan  Love isn't always logical. It's chemistry.
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  175. You only get one go to impress. It has to pack a real punch, be performed well with good vocals, and memorable presentation and some part of it must have a memorable strong melody, whatever other gimmicks surround it. This is too lightweight and does not pack enough of a punch. It's also not to modern European tastes.
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  176. It's a false one.
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  177. +ladoga1506 Stalin wanted to wipe out all opposition and being paranoid he saw opposition everywhere. Lenin, before he died, criticised Stalin and so did Krushchev who " denounced Stalin for “despotism.” He accused Stalin of “repression and physical annihilation, not only against actual enemies, but also against individuals who had not committed any crimes against the party and the Soviet Government.” Khrushchev pointed out that in the late 1930s, 98 of the 139 members of the Communist Party’s Central Committee were arrested and shot. Furthermore, he said, more than half of the Seventeenth Party Congress was arrested on trumped-up charges of counterrevolutionary actions. - See more at: http://blog.oup.com/2012/02/khrushchev-denounces-stalin-speech-soviet-communists/#sthash.gsOJObHx.dpuf
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  178. +ladoga1506 I agree Nazism is the worst ideology because it advocates genocide and practised genocide too. I don't think communist ideology was to blame for Stalin's murderous excesses. I think that was more down to Stalin's paranoid personality. Stalin ordered the elimination of "affluent" peasants, called Kulaks, as a class https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kulak. He was also responsible for the death of many captured prisoners of war in WW2 including those Russian and other prisoners of war liberated from German prisoner of war camps. They either died on the marches back to Russia or in the gulags afterwards.
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  179. +ladoga1506 Here is the history of dekulakization and Stalin's part in it.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kulak As for the gulags, Solzhenitsyn has written extensively about those as well as prisoners who smuggled out information though they were writing later than WW2 . The families of those who never came back from the camps after WW2 are aware of the deaths and disappearances. Stalin and assumed that every Russian who was captured by the Germans was a traitor but it was not so. Russians soldiers generally hated the Germans for what they did in Russia and were treated very badly by the Germans when captured. They were lucky if they survived German camps and then they were killed by their own side (Stalin) after being "liberated"poor wretches.
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  180. Roisin McGarvey. This is useful source for conversation. A serious learner might want to back it up with some textbook for Grammar etc. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gXToPIIarg
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  181. This isn't a history. It's a drama. It doesn't have to be totally historically accurate.
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  182. Gustav Adolph. This isn't necessarily politically motivated just because you say it is. I know tanned skin doesn't necessarily mean African ancestry. Don't you know what a metaphor is? Look it up.
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  183. Gustav Adolph. Well it's clear in your mind. If people didn't like it they would not watch it but it drew a higher audience than the Alien Prequel and it was on BBC2. https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/may/09/bbc-hollow-crown-war-of-the-roses-tom-sturridge-hugh-bonneville
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  184. Michael Dukes. No I never have. If I find someone attractive, it's the whole person, but I wouldn't be crass enough to comment about it on youtube or other social media.
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  185.  @SchoolRumble4ever22  *breathe
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  186. Mary Berry doesn't rhyme when said in an English accent but I'm guessing it does when said in an American accent.
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  187. Dan N. Any more cliches you'd like to list?
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  188. KC Miles. It seems you long for an all white Britain or England. Change is a constant. Time can't be frozen to address the hang-ups you can't cope with. By the way did you know that George III's Queen, Charlotte, had some black ancestry and DNA tests have shown that Prince William and Prince Harry have an Indian woman as an ancestor? Britain perhaps wasn't quite as white as you thought.
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  189. Should've gone to Specsavers.
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  190. Exactly that I think but it is passing as the young generation generally just say 'I'm good' now.
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  191. Chromatic Beardiant. I don't use autocorrect because it can't cope with certain things, like proper names, names in other languages and English spelling and I think it also stops people from remembering themselves how to write grammatically.
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  192. Only responding to the touchy little con artists
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  193. There's no character called 'Peaky'.
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  194. John of Gaunt was dying anyway.
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  195. Anyone who says 'all the sudden' is just getting the expression 'all of a sudden' wrong.
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  196. Davazno1 Yeah but these days people play around with Shakespeare plays, as these are dramas with wider relevance in the stories. For instance there has been an all female Hamlet and an all black Roman play (I think it was Julius Caesar). There has been a version of Macbeth set in a Nazi type regime. It's all fluid. People shouldn't get their knickers in a twist about it. Shylock is not always played by a Jewish person is he or Romans by Italians? If you don't like it don't watch it, but I watched this one and thought it was really good. Margaret was distrusted as a "foreigner" because she was French. Not quite the same I know, but you can see it as a metaphor for the "difference" people reacted to.
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  197. davazno1. No. I think you are making that up but there has been an all black Hamlet http://blacktheatrelive.co.uk/tours/hamlet. If you don't like things, don't watch them but allow people freedom and don't spoil the enjoyment of others. The world is big enough to hold many things.
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  198. davazno1. No problem, but I think you'd enjoy it if you watched it. It's one that makes the meaning of Shakespeare's words clearer than many other versions. The acting's good and there's lots of exciting action, particularly in part II (my favourite part) but you really need to watch it all to follow the plot.
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  199. He knows he's with David Attenborough.
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  200. Survival, staying on top?
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  201. We shouldn't object when we had all those years when Hollywood movies set in the Middle East or Egypt or about Native Americans were full of white western actors playing non white parts. Alec Guinness as Prince Faisal, Lawrence Olivier and Orson Wells as Othello, Yul Brynner as King of Siam, and Taras Bulba, and Chief Black Eagle etc etc. They were good in those parts and Sophie Okonedo is good in this.
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  202. Evil etc. What do you mean "offing" and who are you to tell me what to do?
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  203. Evil etc. I've just looked up "offing" in the urban dictionary. It refers to suicide. I've now reported you for cyber bullying. Have a nice day.
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  204. Well she seems to have pushed up the viewing figures for Shakespeare.
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  205.  @snipper1ie  Yes in Roman times a slave would do it to a Roman Emperor as they rode through the streets in a victory parade.
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  206. Why don't you read all the other similar questions in the comments and the replies?
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  207. Don't watch it then
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  208. Losing viewers? Well, this video has many more viewers than the clips without this actress. Have a look. Young people are more educated these days, many more of them having been to University, and they well know there were no black Queens at this time but they are sophisticated enough to enjoy the drama for what it is.
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  209. LexRex. Most of them came to complain it seems. Still no publicity is bad publicity. It all draws attention to the play. I've not found another Shakespeare play with over 325,000 views.
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  210. He's blind in one eye, so yes.
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  211. If we have Brexit, they won't need to check them as the lorries will be stuck for ages trying to get through customs and any people being smuggled will die waiting. If they made lorries go through thermal imaging systems, that should detect any people smuggling but that would mean investment.
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  212. Yes but it's a manipulative pretence, in order to put the Duchess and Duke of Gloucester in a bad light to make it more plausible to get rid of them later.
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  213.  @Vladpryde  Well not quite (I think) because The Colour Purple is about a particular author's experiences in a particular time and setting and about racism. Shakespeare, though he set his plays in certain times and settings, writes more about universal truths that anyone can relate to in different times and settings which is why people sometimes play around with the settings and times of his plays, sometimes transferring their settings to modern times for instance. This is a play about power and power struggles which could happen with different characters in different settings. You could dress all these characters as gang members or mafia mob members and it would work I think (as an example).
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  214. Intimations of his own mortality (he could have died in the accident) probably made him feel he had no time to waste in getting a male heir.
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  215. Which casting choices disappointed you?
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  216. Poetic Elizabethan English
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  217. The Queen was threatened with revenge. However she is putting on an act, because underneath she is manipulative, and is working to get rid of the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, who, at present, have control over the King.
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  218. In what way is she not entertaining?
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  219. What all of them?
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  220. She's not Caribbean
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  221.  @oldskoolrools3087  Whoosh on that one! Do you think I don't know about Indian poverty? That's why it's ironic that an Indian charity would offer to support poor children in the UK. Poverty is being unable to afford food for your children or heating or anywhere to live. People may fall into poverty after having children through no fault of their own but because of circumstances. I think it's pointless trying to explain that as you have no comprehension.
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  222. Not so. She has age related macular degeneration and can no longer read scripts. Her eyes are not consistently looking in the same direction.
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  223. The Background: King Henry Vi is a weak King. Queen Margaret is a strong Queen though manipulative. The Duke of Gloucester is Lord Protector which is a role normally in place when a King is underage. Queen Margaret is scheming to get rid of Gloucester and his wife. In this scene Gloucester tells the Queen to keep her nose out of political affairs which are not for women to be involved in. She questions why a Protector is needed. He says he'll resign if the King asks him to. The nobles use this as a cue to ask him to resign and start accusing him of extortion, corruption and incompetence. The Queen joins in. Then she attempts to publicly humiliate the Duchess of Gloucester by getting her to pick up her fan. The Duchess refuses and gets a slap. She threatens the Queen. The Queen pretends to be distressed and runs off. She's setting Gloucester and his wife up for a fall.
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  224. Maybe because she was a good actress and they wanted to reach wider audiences.
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  225. Where a story is about racism of people who fought it then racial casting is important but that's not the case here. Margaret was disliked as a foreigner but the drama is not about race and racial matters. If you don't like it you don't have to watch it.
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  226. Charles Cortez Lol. I doubt any of the people complaining about the casting here have actually watched the play, or intend to, but if they at least watched this clip they would hear her referred to as a "Frenchwoman" by the Duchess of Gloucester. I'm sure if they got interested enough they might also find out more about the history.
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  227. I don't think it's a big problem. If they start asserting that Queen Margaret was black someone will correct them. In any case they probably think the Wars of the Roses is a 1990 film with Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner.
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  228. Decanus etc. Of course this isn't accurate. It's not all to do with the BBC. Shakespeare liked to mess about with history for dramatic purposes. His great abdication scene in Richard II never happened. Richard abdicated by just signing the papers apparently, but it doesn't make for such good drama. Also there's no evidence that Richard III had his wife killed or his brother but it's a more gripping drama if he's portrayed as an out and out villain who did all this. If people want to know about history they need to watch a history programme or read a history book.
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  229.  @fatfat1877  They won't allow us tariff free trade if we're not in the EU. We'd need to be at least in a customs union with the EU which the Tories don't want to be. You make the mistake of thinking that when we're out of the club the EU will allow us to have the privileges of being in the club - like tariff free trade. They won't because others would want to leave if they could get the benefits of being in the EU while not being in it. We'll have to negotiate a deal with them which could take years (deals generally do) and we'll be up against experienced and skillful trade negotiators of the EU while we'll have no experienced trade deal negotiators. What could possibly go wrong? Boris has already given away £7bn of British taxpayers money, lodged in the EU bank, in order to get his current agreement. That's not been publicised. In the meantime, the EU will place tariffs on our exports to the EU making them uncompetitive. We'll have to decide what tariffs to levy on imports. Any tariff will push up prices for British consumers. If we choose to place zero tariffs, it would destroy British industry and agriculture sectors. Also over 80% of our exports are 'services' and about 49% of those are to the EU. The day we leave the EU on hard Brexit terms (no deal) those services would lose their 'passport' to the EU. It saddens me so much that there's so much misunderstanding that I have to console myself by watching videos like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeoT66v4EHg&list=FLGGEn5ziDGQqNRr1m3pwHBg&index=3&t=0s
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  230. It's a drama not a history so 100% accurate casting isn't so important. Plenty of white westerners have played roles from other countries. Remember Yul Brynner as King of Siam in The King and I or Lawrence Olivier and Orson Welles as Othello? Al Pacino as Shylock? Plenty of white Americans playing native Americans? The people who cast this would be the casting directors and it's a very well performed version of the play.
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  231. I don't really care about agendas. It's an enjoyable well performed play. You are concerned about the 'young and uneducated' seeing this. I'm pretty sure the young and uneducated won't be watching this, but if they are they will need to learn that you should read a history book if you want to find out about history rather than relying on dramas. Shakespeare plays are not totally accurate on history.
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  232. Not canned laughter.
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  233.  @tidbit1877  *Corbyn. Corbyn is a democrat so he wants to give people a choice between remain and a deal to leave, but that deal would not be a hard Brexit. It would mean staying in a customs union with the EU in order to preserve British jobs and the British economy. So it will be a choice between Remain and a soft Brexit with a Referendum to decide. He hopes to persuade Labour and other leavers to vote for him on that basis, as well as Labour and other Remainers, but I'm not sure the general public can understand or get behind a position that is a) not as simple as siding with Remain or Leave and b) will prolong the process more, but to come out with the best outcome for Remainers or Leavers, depending on what the final judgement of voters is, that's what he feels is the right thing to do.
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  234.  Steptay68  I think they are leaving because trade will be more difficult outside of Brexit. Economic damage will be caused by a hard Brexit and already the pound has dropped in value. Tories seem to get away with economic damage by circulating scare stories about Corbyn. Divide and rule. That's the way they do it. After WW2 when Britain was practically bankrupt a Labour government started a massive housebuilding programme, and nationalised many industries including the establishment of the NHS and the world didn't fall apart nor did the economy.
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  235.  Steptay68  You've been fed on a diet of The Daily Mail, The Sun or The Express for most of your life I guess, or perhaps Sky or Fox News. They have been feeding you this line. It's in the interests of their wealthy owners who fear a Corbyn government would tax them more and put an end to their existing tax dodging. Corbyn is not a communist. In fact from his previous Manifesto and current statements he is not much more than a social democrat as you would find in many northern Europe democracies. He's not 'terrorist loving' either. He is peace loving and prepared to talk to different sides to achieve it. After all that's no more than the Tory and Labour governments did to end up with the Good Friday agreement in Northern Ireland in 1998. He also points out where there is or has been oppression, when he sees it.
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  236.  @BedsitBob  2016 was a blind vote. Knowing much more now about the options and implications, a further choice allows for people who may have changed their minds. After all, no one has demonstrated any real benefit to ordinary people from Brexit. All the benefit will be to wealthy tax avoiders, multi national corporations and financial speculators who earn millions and stand to earn millions more from betting against the British economy in a practice called 'shorting'. Tell me any known benefit to ordinary people that will come from Brexit.
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  237. Here's something to cheer you up MRWorldGuy. There are loads of productions all the time up and down the country and it's not hard to find something to suit you. Here's a production from Worcester College of a different play https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WB_5F4050-s
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  238. MRWorld. In Baz Luhrman's Romeo and Juliet Mercutio was played by a black actor if you remember. As you said that was good and raised no objection, why pick on this play which is better? (As a matter of fact I think that Zefifirelli's Romeo and Juliet is better than Baz Luhrman's,). In predominantly white countries, black actors don't get as much opportunity to play good roles when stories come from white history (which is where stories come from predominantly) and I don't really mind if they get opportunities in such dramas because it brings people like Shakespeare alive to wider audiences and enables them to enjoy him more. Deviations from historical accuracy don't spoil enjoyment or popularity for most people it seems. The French TV station, Canal Plus, recently cast English actors as French King Louis XIV and his brother, in the TV show "Versailles" and produced the show in English in order to bring it to wider audiences. This enabled them to sell it to more countries worldwide so they could cover the expensive costs of producing it. It was the second most watched series in France ever, although they only saw it dubbed into French, with English, Canadian and some French actors.
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  239. MRWorldGuy. Here are some Aztecs being portrayed by white actors by The Royal Shakespeare Company/ National Theatre of Mexico co-production. http://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-a-soldier-in-every-son-the-rise-of-the-aztecs-by-luis-mario-moncada-49237279.html
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  240. C James S. There is no recorded clapping in BBC comedies and in this one. It's done in front of a live audience.
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  241. C James S Not at all. It's BBC policy and there's a guy in the comments of one of these videos, who had been in the audience for a recording of the show, and describes how it works. Many of the jokes play on stuff that Shakespeare does in his plays or what's known about him so if you like Shakespeare and know a bit about his plays and his life you'll get more of the jokes. It also plays a bit on parallels with current issues in Britain at the moment. If you are looking for a different type of humour, you probably won't like this. I'm guessing that the people who go to see it are probably fans in the first place and they probably know that an audience for a comedy is expected to laugh. Laughter is infectious. Once some people start, others will follow. Maybe you'd like this clip better https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2jMs2Dp2eo
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  242.  @dianeunderhill8506  They weren't main character though.
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  243. Yeah yeah, but what did you think of the play? Didn't watch it I guess.
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  244. You can't really say that if you didn't see it.
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  245. tysswe1. This isn't history. It's a play. Shakespeare was never 100% accurate with history. He would have wanted you to enjoy and judge it as a play. As a rendering of his play it's great I think.
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  246.  Me Innit  Oh yeah? That lefty organisation called the Tory Party that he represents?
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  247. The correct address is Dame Judi, not Dame Dench.
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  248. You want English subtitles for English? It's not difficult to understand if you listen carefully. At least you can get the gist. It starts in the middle of a scene. The Duke of Gloucester (The Lord Protector) says the King is old enough to give a reproof himself, (we don't know to whom) and the Queen should not interfere. The Queen says, if the King's old enough why does he need a protector? Gloucester says he will resign as Protector if the King wants him to. Suffolk or Sussex (can't remember which) intervenes and tells Gloucester to resign. He starts to accuse him of acting as King, and being responsible for the everything that's going wrong in the country. The country is going to the dogs. The heir to the French throne (called the Dauphin) is winning in France where England and France are at war, and Gloucester lords it over the nobles. The Archbishop then accuses Gloucester of over overtaxing the country (via the House of Commons) and overtaxing the clergy. Someone else (we hear but don't see) accuses him of spending too much on buildings and his wife's clothes. The Queen accuses him of corruptly selling official jobs and control of towns in France, and says it's a capital offence. She says the King knows everything. She then goes down and deliberately drops her fan to humiliate the Duchess of Gloucester by getting her to pick it up. The Duchess ignores her request and gets a slap. The Duchess says she would scratch the Queen's face with her nails if she could. The King says the Queen didn't mean any harm (The King is a bit of a weak booby, if you'd not picked up on that). The Duchess threatens the Queen with revenge for the insult. The manipulative Queen pretends to be very distressed and runs off.
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  249. jerina shooting star. There's no evidence that Margaret was black. There are no images of her during her lifetime except her tomb image and a few medieval images that show her as blonde or brown. Images of her parents show them as blond or brown. I see no reason why a black British actress shouldn't be cast as her in a drama though. She's a good actress. I can't see what the fuss is about. Why can't people see beyond skin colour. If they were true Shakespeare fans I don't think they'd be complaining.
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  250. @Maggie Jenkins You're a bit deluded mate.
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  251. I found it quite easy to see that she played the part really well. Queen Margaret was regarded as a foreigner in England so the metaphor works well. I think we're past the days of painting faces different colours as when Laurence Olivier blacked up as Othello.
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  252. I don't think Sophie Okonedo looks to be in her forties. All drama is about a "suspension of disbelief". I think if you watched the whole play, you would forget the unusual casting and become swept away by the story, the drama and the performances.
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  253. That's not Ross speaking but the actor who plays the Irish character, Colonel Despard.
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  254. Comments are mostly about the actress's skin colour. Boring and small minded. Yawn! Not much about the play itself.
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  255. Since Henry VI was handsome
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  256. No that's just you.
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  257. They both had to try hard to stop themselves laughing at references to his dongle.
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  258. It means when the subject is feeling low, depressed and envious of others for various reasons, he reminds himself of a love that meant so much to him that he would not change his place with Kings.
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  259. You need to watch the whole thing. The Duke of Gloucester is Lord Protector which is like a Regent for an underage King but Henry is no longer underage. He's just weak minded and a bit mentally unstable (he actually suffers from mental breakdowns in his reign). The Queen is a strong character but a foreigner. She plots with the Duke of Suffolk or Sussex (can't remember which) to get rid of Gloucester and his wife. When Gloucester tries to shut the Queen up at the beginning, she raises the question of his need to be Protector. Suffolk or Sussex asks him to resign and then everyone starts accusing Gloucester of all manner of corruption. The Queen then provokes the Duchess of Gloucester into an open act of rebellion by trying to humiliate her. She's setting up the Gloucesters for their fall from power which follows later.
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  260. Be careful what you wish for.
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  261.  @nicolapowell7730  From Birmingham
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  262. It would not have destroyed it for Shakespeare.
    2
  263. David Walliams is a comedian and a very successful children's author.
    2
  264. *retch. A wretch is something you can be though. The fresher the fish is, the less it should smell. Freshwater fish, such as trout, is not salty and can have quite a light delicate flavour.
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  265.  @Hrochnick  Not grammar police, but free education service.
    2
  266. Shakespeare is not pleased with you.
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  267.  @malaksalemm  It was the female side of his family, not the Tudor (male side) that gave Henry Tudor a claim to the throne. Henry VI's mother was Katherine or Catherine of Valois, not Isabella.
    2
  268.  @alexander9703  I shall check this out further. The history books all refer to Henry VII as being on the Lancastrian side. Do you mean supporters of Elizabeth of York rather than Elizabeth Woodville? Elizabeth Woodville was not a Yorkist by birth but only by marriage and in any case, as a woman she had no claim to the throne herself.
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  269.  @alexander9703  As I understand it, Henry VII's mother, Margaret Beaufort, was a descendant of John of Gaunt. Edward III named John of Gaunt his second heir after Richard II. Richard II had no children when he was deposed by Henry Bolingbroke (Henry IV, Lancastrian line), Edward of York was named 3rd heir by Edward III. So it's understandable since Henry VII's line was from the second heir, that he would join the Lancastrians against the descendants of the 3rd named heir, a Yorkist. Henry VII's claim did come through a woman, his mother, and that may not have been acceptable at the time.
    2
  270. I think Dickens was a form of the name Richard, often shortened to Dick.
    2
  271. Claire Foy is famous now having played the Queen in "The Crown". I don't see the cringe factor at all but everything is in the eye of the beholder I guess.
    2
  272. Shakespeare was never about historical accuracy, if there was better drama to be had by deviating from it.
    2
  273.  @H3nry488  Well Shakespeare 'messed up' history when it suited him, for dramatic purposes, and in his time men played the parts of women. If you want accurate history, watch a documentary or read a history book. Shakespeare is not the best source. Did people protest as much when Laurence Olivier blacked up to play Othello? Do people insist that Shylock should always be played by a Jew or that Romeo and Juliet should always be played by Italians? By the way, the actor who plays King Henry VI in this video is too handsome for the part but I'm not complaining.
    2
  274.  @H3nry488  Margaret of Anjou was French and the English very much distrusted her as a foreigner with her foreign ways. The way she saw and handled the politics at the time was very much the way it would have been done in France i.e.remove any perceived rivalries or threats whether genuine or imagined. Being played by a black actress is a metaphor for that sense of difference and not belonging that was felt at the time. Her mocking of the Gloucesters is part of her plan to remove them as a power base in the court. She succeeds in this in later scenes.
    2
  275.  @H3nry488  No. It wasn't about racism exactly. As I said, that was perhaps a metaphor. Remember the English monarchy at that time was of French descent, but the France and England were enemies at that time as they had been warring over territory in France. Henry V had been very successful in his wars against France (remember his victory at Agincourt?) but when his son Henry VI got betrothed to Margaret of Anjou, Henry VI gave all the land the English had conquered in France back to France (except for Calais I think) as part of the betrothal agreement. He got nothing in return for his 'gift' except Margaret of Anjou herself. The English really resented that and resented her for it, having spilt so much English blood in gaining those lands.
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  276. missmysterymagic.This scene shows some power play between the Queen and the Gloucesters. The Queen is stronger than the King (Henry VI was a notably pious but weak king who suffered from periodic mental illness). The Duke of Gloucester is the Lord Protector. Basically he was regent from the time Henry was a baby because Henry was a baby when his father died and he inherited the throne. Certain factions including the Queen want to be rid of the Gloucesters because Henry is now an adult, but the Duke of Gloucester is still exerting power over him. This scene shows the beginning of the movement to oust the Gloucesters from power (which happens afterwards).
    2
  277. The story of Kunta Kinte was the story of a black man's experience of slavery which was particular to black men though the Irish also suffered slavery so there could have been a story about them. Shakespeare's stories are drama which often has universal application, so you get Japanese and Russian versions of his plays for instance. In this play, Margaret is a "foreigner" and this is just one interpretation. Historical accuracy was less important to Shakespeare than good drama so he often changed historical facts to make better drama. I don't think he would have objected to this.
    2
  278. *didn't understand. I did understand your point, I just disagreed with it. All drama is about a "suspension of disbelief" . I think you'd enjoy the play if you watched it through and the unusual casting would bother you less. Shakespeare wanted people to enjoy his plays.
    2
  279. I should worry more about the English language declining among the indigenous population if I were you. It should be "these two words". I also think you mean "look up" the two words since merely writing them would not mean anything. I did look them up and I think it's not right to foist such concerns onto a fictional play, or the casting of such. We were once all one race as our origins can all be traced back to Africa. Distinct races developed as a result of migration to different parts of the world with different conditions and climates, so race itself is just a matter of accident and it's not worth getting worked up about. Change has always happened and always will.
    2
  280. PsyduckWaterflower. There were certainly white slaves - the Irish for instance so you could make slavery stories about that. I think where race or racial discrimination is the main part of the story then the race of the person is important in the casting, but if the story is not about the race of the person or racial discrimination then there's more options for casting in a drama.
    2
  281.  @Laura-op6ix  They have their own cultures if that's what you mean.
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  282.  @Laura-op6ix  Yes, many of them trained at RADA.
    2
  283. Liam from One Direction
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  284.  @iceetmarne3571  It's not unheard of for Shakespeare's words to have more than one meaning. He was clever that way. I agree it is indeed powerful.
    2
  285. Sometimes. The panel is annoying, but it's one of the few regular forums where members of the public get to put their representatives on the spot.
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  286.  @jacktrevino1108  Any relation to Lee?
    2
  287. That's the point. Henry VI was mentally weak and naive at best and sometimes mentally unstable. The Wars of the Roses might not have taken place if he had been a more capable King. He relied on incompetent and corrupt officials who caused discontent at court and in the nation. The Queen was determined to make an enemy of the Duke of York, whom she saw as a threat. She got what she wished for.
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  288.  @unclepiccolo4832  When you see the whole play - all three of them in fact (4 if you count Richard III) it's not the ethnic background of the actors you notice but the good acting, the great story and plot, and the beautiful poetic language. Don't forget that in Shakespeare's time the audience had to suspend its disbelief over women characters played by men, as women weren't allowed to act in the theatres.
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  289.  @unclepiccolo4832  They still wouldn't look like real women. Would you have her try and look like a white woman. That would hardly be convincing either. No one looks exactly like the characters they are playing anyway. Look up images of Henry VI. The actor playing him looks too normal, healthy and handsome to convincingly look like Henry VI. The point is they use their acting skills to play the character, not their ability to physically imitate the character.
    2
  290. Well Oswald Moseley is in the show. He was a fascist, influenced by Mussolini and would have allied with the Nazis but he was interned in WW2.
    2
  291. I hardly noticed. Perhaps you were not too engaged anyway.
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  292. Not so. We haven't left yet so we could stay under the same terms as before.
    2
  293. He looks like he doesn't understand a word that's being said but is trying to pretend he does.
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  294. Katie Price
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  295. I think it's a blackberry that's not yet ripe. They are red before they ripen.
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  296. It's funny. We are not all Trump brown nosers.
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  297. It does not have to be factual. It's a drama. Shakespeare often played fast and loose with facts. His histories do not stick strictly to the facts. Queen Margaret was a foreigner in England and was regarded as such by many so the choice of actress actually helps to emphasise that aspect.
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  298. He was always talking with an English accent. He's English.
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  299.  @someinteresting  Yes I've seen the video but when she asks him to speak with an English accent, the audience laughs because he is English and his own accent is an English accent. So many people seem to think there is only one English accent
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  300.  @someinteresting  I don't want anything. I'm just commenting on the inaccuracy of comments to the effect that there is a single English accent and he doesn't speak with one.
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  301. Decanus Gaius Publius. I did note your original comment. The reason I mentioned these things is that I presume that if there were some black people in Europe in Roman times their descendants might still be in the population by medieval times. It's only a small point - not a big deal. Feel free to ignore it.
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  302. Decanus Gaius Publius. I can't think of anything else to say about this.
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  303. Time you grew up.
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  304. boshankers12. You didn't get that the overacting here is deliberate. She is being deliberately manipulative to bring down the Gloucesters (which happens later) and she acts so that the audience can see that's what she's doing. They did try to make it as understandable as possible to the widest audiences. Here is the beginning of the downfall of the Gloucesters https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jjr5wjIiJ7E
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  305. Here's an exciting PBS trailer for the whole show https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqp9F7qSbWQ
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  306. It's Alan Cummings
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  307. Shakespeare's dramas are never totally historically accurate because the drama of a story was more important to him than the accuracy of the history, and in his time all the women's parts were played by men anyway, so a little poetic licence can be allowed.
    2
  308. Yes, all over the world people interpret Shakespeare in their own way. That's the beauty of Shakespeare and why his plays have stayed popular worldwide for so long.
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  309. She is 84 and doesn't have plastic surgery so it's natural. It's her smoker's cough that is more worrying surely.
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  310. You realise she's acting out putting on an act, to let us know she is not sincere but is trying to entrap the Duchess of Gloucester?
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  311. How does she know more about Gandalf than Gandalf?
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  312. Your ancestors double in number every generation you go back, so go back far enough and sooner or later everyone is bound to hit someone interesting or powerful in their genetic line. The difficulty with genealogy is finding the records to prove it, and in a sense it becomes meaningless if everyone can do this but psychologically it strikes us as being great if we are told we are descended from someone important in history.
    2
  313. Before she was Friends she was in French and Saunders TV series which she co-wrote with Dawn French, and Absolutely Fabulous TV series (which she also wrote). She was even in Roseanne before she was in Friends.
    2
  314. How?
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  315. I can just see him as Sally Bowles from Cabaret.
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  316. Don't be daft
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  317. She says in a Scottish accent "you take the high road and I'll take the low road". It's a line from a traditional Scottish song ( "The Banks of Loch Lomond") which continues "and I'll be in Scotland afore ye" (before you). 
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  318. U.K just does not "get". the Eurovision song contest. We think it's kitsch, including the winning entries so we put in kitsch entries to try and win. Trouble is that other European countries take it seriously. They really like the kind of songs that win and don't regard them as kitsch, so it's no good us not being serious about it if we want to win..
    1
  319. Shot to look like Blackadder? What, in the sense that it's set in historical times? It would be a bit later than the setting for Blackadder II, as Queen Elizabeth is young in that, and would be old at this time.
    1
  320. Only in make believe in the film. It's Cynthia Payne who did it for real.
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  321. As it's an english lesson, may I point out that it's 'through it all' not 'threw it all'. 'Threw' is about throwing things. It's the past participle of 'to throw'.  You may not be bothered though.
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  322. Cheryl Cole's ex (just).
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  323. Probably the usual reason. Probably about to release a record.
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  324. Perhaps Channel S4C will help to encourage learning of the Welsh langauge https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZncHgVHAxvc
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  325. I think it helps to speak more than one language.
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  326. +Niamh McArdle It's a T.V series not a film.
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  327.  @gostavoadolfos2023  Because we are good hearted? Traditionally black actors have not had so many acting opportunities in predominantly white societies, so it's about addressing that I suppose and ignoring skin colour where it's not essential to the story. In a story featuring racism, skin colour would be important otherwise the story would not make sense.
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  328. * Tin mine
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  329. She's not that serious about it. The whole show is meant to be lighthearted and humerous.
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  330. +No1sonuk Well, most of us have had an alcoholic drink at one time or another or seen people who have and I recognise the signs.
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  331. * It's spelt "Scottish" or "Scots"
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  332. +Андрей Петров and what a great body of literature you have! :)
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  333. * Simon Russell Beale
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  334. Probably "Sharpe" There are a number of Sharpe Series set in this period e.g "Sharpe's Rifles" Starring Sean Bean
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  335. Just checked and Sharpe is an ITV programme rather than BBC - so it can't be that. It's a  good series though.
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  336. This is a show whose premise is a fantasy. All things are possible in this world.
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  337. It's now called 'Toughsheet Community Stadium' which sounds awful, like 'Tough shit'
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  338.  Kaian凯安  It was while he was married and his wife was pregnant, but be that as it may, the reason he was sacked was because Merton and Hislop thought Deayton no longer had credibility making jokes about others. He had become the butt of jokes himself.
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  339. +lpuck43 As it's a British production with British and American actors it would sound a bit comical if they were trying to copy Russian accents. It's better as it is because bad attempts at Russian accents don't detract from the story. In any case the Russian nobility were known to speak French.
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  340. No one can talk to Reagan, except through a medium. He died some years ago.
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  341. Henry VIII was said to have eaten Turkey and that was earlier than the Pilgrims. Where did that come from I wonder. Were they brought over from America?
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  342. Just to change the subject from people's apparent obsession with the colour of an actresses skin......If he were alive today I imagine Shakespeare would be writing about the chaos of Brexit and the recent UK election results. It's a bit like the wars of the roses played on a micro scale in Parliament with most of the "bloodshed" happening behind the scenes.
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  343. Katheryne Koelker. What you say is true. I know that happens. I've seen these plays several times. I was just commenting on the specific point you made about this particular incident between Margaret and the Duchess and the significance of it in the scheme of things.
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  344.  @dannyputra1908  *Such as who
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  345. +Andy Kapinos Hugh Laurie is British. Not sure why he is adopting an American accent here. Perhaps the character he is playing is American or they think it will sell better in America that way.
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  346. +Katherine Todders His accent sounds American or at least mid-Atlantic in the trailer.
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  347. +Matthew McBurnett It's a song that meant something to her so she sang it with real feeling and that comes across.
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  348. +Matthew McBurnett No, I'm not interpreting.. I'm aware she said that her great grandmother was caught up in the ethnic clearances of Stalin and this song is dedicated to her.
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  349. +TheOelun Do you mean Bezukhov? (not sure of the spelling). Bolkonsky is quite a reserved character.
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  350. +You Yuber AND PEACE :)
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  351. He speaks English. He is English. You mean different from what you perceive to be standard English.
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  352. It's very clever and quite accurate in many references to Shakespeare. If you know and like Shakespeare's stuff it helps, but it wears its learning lightly.
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  353. one of the sonnets
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  354. Can't believe you're not impressed by it. I have only passed it a few times but it's exciting and magnificent every time catching that first glimpse of it, and it's great that it's for the North. There's nothing to match it elsewhere in the UK - nothing quite like it. It's also appropriate as it has a kind of industrial look but one that's rusting. It should be a matter of pride. Florence has its David, Paris has its Mona Lisa and The North of England has its Angel. Cool! The other thing is that you're on a featureless boring piece of motorway then suddenly there's this amazing welcoming and protective feature that lets you know you've arrived in the North and there's something benign guarding it. If people there don't value it, give it to the South and we'll rename it Angel of the South :-)
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  355. +Panthera It's a T.V. programme
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  356. 'would've' (contraction of would have)  Not 'would of'
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  357. Hospitals force you to be naked.
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  358. splinterbyrd. I remember Angharad Rees as quite petite, not buxom and remember her being quite "knowing" at times. You gotta remember that Demelza is meant to be quite streetwise. I'm sure most people were slim in those times. Not enough food and money to get fat and plenty of manual work to do.
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  359. gog 1284. Yes
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  360. Ron Weasley does not exist you know. He is a fictional character.
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  361. +Queen Elizabeth II This was made by the BBC.
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  362. Logan Cox. And Yul Brynner played the King of Siam. Marlon Brando played a Mexican (Emiliano Zapata) and Laurence Olivier blacked up to play Othello as did Orson Welles. Mark Rylance played Olivia in Twelfth Knight, Kevin Costner played Robin Hood with an American accent. Drama is about the "suspension of disbelief". Margaret of Anjou was a "foreigner" being French and the English resented her taking control of the Lancastrian side in the War of the Roses. The actress can be seen as a metaphor for that "foreignness" as well as being an excellent actress in the part.
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  363. Jakub Tyl. But that would look ridiculous these days. It's such an old fashioned and out of date approach. It's a drama not a history and Shakespeare never troubled to be particularly accurate with history. He changed some things for dramatic effect or to please his sponsors. It's a very good production and people are missing the enjoyment of it by allowing themselves to be prejudiced against it before even watching it.
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  364. Jakub Tyl. Ah well! You will miss a good production for the sake of your annoyance - so be it. Your loss.
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  365. ex nurse, you see.
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  366. Chromatic Beardiant. I thought you'd mention the spelling of spelt :-) Yes, in the UK we use spelt and in the US they use spelled but US spellcheck so dominates the world that I think over time people in the UK will use US spellings more.
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  367. Chromatic Beardiant. Thank you for your opinion. I'll give you mine in return. I find English in the UK more precise, concise and eloquent than the American version. Americans are often verbose which they mistake for sounding clever and they sometimes misuse words as a consequence or sound completely unintelligible. However, I am biased of course.
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  368. But not very realistic
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  369. He said something.
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  370. Your comment?
    1
  371. Liam from One Direction
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  372.  @katiakatia2380  They were a massively popular band in the UK and USA at one time though they have broken up now. If you want to know more google them.
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  373. Your question is ungrammatical.
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  374. Why not, because you say so?
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  375. Well it didn't do Tony Curtis (born Bernard Schwartz) any harm. He played a variety of parts including an English medieval Knight, a Viking an Anglo Saxon, and a Roman - all with his New York accent intact but I enjoyed his performances.
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  376.  @niccoarcadia4179  I'd like to think they would be given a chance today, since parts have opened up more to 'non-conventional' casting, as witnessed here. It should be talent that wins out in getting parts, as well as suitability. However I think they'd probably have to learn to do different accents. In this case, because Margaret was regarded with suspicion for being a foreigner (French) her casting is like a metaphor for that sense of standing out as different from the rest of the court.
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  377. No. It's Tracy Ullman in a comedy sketch.
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  378. They probably did but he was too ill to play the part. Lol.
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  379. No it's a great play.
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  380. Fascism doesn't really serve the workers in the end.
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  381. Do you mean 'lass'?
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  382. Sonnet 29
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  383. He was a posturing idiot.
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  384. * Elizabeth * Beaufort
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  385. It's the beginning of a coup attempt by the Queen to assert the King's authority to get rid of the Gloucesters. The Duke of Gloucester was Regent when the King was young. Now the King is an adult Gloucester should not still be ruling him but the King is a weak character and does not assert himself. The Queen is a stronger character and stages this bit of power play with them as a prelude to taking them down the with the help of some courtiers who support her. You don't see their downfall here in this scene. It's just the beginning of it. Basically the Queen and courtiers say the Duke of Gloucester should resign his position. They blame him for all the bad things going on in the country and accuse him of being incompetent and corrupt. The Queen tries to assert her authority over the Duchess of Gloucester by getting her to pick up her fan, the action of a servant. The reaction of the Duchess seals her fate (later).
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  386. The cringe is meant to be there. This is power play between the Queen and the Duchess of Gloucester. The Queen meant to embarrass and humiliate her. The Duke of Gloucester has been the ruler in effect as the King was too young at one time but now he is grown up but is still a weak character. The Queen is a stronger character than the King and she and her allies are determined to get rid of the Gloucesters. Even the Queen's crying at the end is an act to show up the Gloucesters. It's the start of their fall from power.
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  387. Stupid
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  388. BBC didn't write this. It's Tracey Ullman's work. Is BBC supposed to act as censor? Nothing could be funnier than Trump himself.
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  389. Comedy has always satirised powerful people.
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  390. Not really but she sees him as being someone who can be useful for her.
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  391. By the general low standard of eurovision songs,this song had a memorable chorus and the ethnic element in the violin playing was interesting and arresting. Jade sung well but Andrew Lloyd Weber's songs can be rather lame and this one wasn't great. However at leas he stopped the u.k being bottom. I just wish we could have a more adventurous sounding song with some good lyrics. It's not beyond us to do that.
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  392. Had a humour bypass?
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  393.  @srivatsa9335  Then you've not seen much Brirtish TV. Political satire has been a mainstay of British TV since the 1960s. This is very gentle humour compared to some other shows.
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  394.  @srivatsa9335  This is a comedy show. Have you never seen one before? Maybe they don't so this in your country but it's common in Western democracies. You are taking it far too seriously. Maybe you don't have a sense of humour. None of the policiticans who are being gently mocked have expressed any distress at programmes like these. It's water off a duck's back to them. They are used to it. The leaders most 'sent up' here are British leaders. After all, Merkel is told by her advisor that she's 'allowed' to roll her eyes at Boris Johnson.
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  395.  @srivatsa9335  It's no breach of the BBC's charter. I think it's just not your sort of humour.
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  396.  @saleh6272  Haven't you noticed the 'Billy Boys' and Oswald Moseley. They are real enemies. What episode are you up to? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyq2XWPhl-w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2uNUh1OHas
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  397. Is that what the bird is saying? It's rather noisy.
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  398. It's not Isabella of France. It's Margaret of Anjou.
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  399. He isn't. He's playing the Duke of Gloucester who is also the Lord Protector. The King is sitting on the throne next to the Queen and is played by Tom Sturridge.
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  400. Angela Merkel is a very capable and competent leader. Germany has had far fewer deaths in relation to Covid 19 cases than many other European countries.
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  401. 'Inferior?' How ?
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  402. She is a capable leader. Germany has far fewer deaths in relation to Covid 19 cases than many other European countries.
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  403. Someone from the 'we are the true religion and everyone else is wrong' brigade. That's most religions for you.
    1
  404. Yes the audience seems far too gung ho for Brexit
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  405.  @stevehorner8302  Oh well, you get what you vote for.
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  406. Adolph Hitler 's Chancellorship was confirmed by a Referendum. If only that Referendum result had been ignored, but no, the ignorant and bigoted must have their way. After Brexit, Trump will destroy the country.
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  407. Really? You know his family said he doesn't believe in the things he says as an MP.
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  408.  @arvindkhurana8851  Thomas Shelby was a complete hyprocrite . He pretended to have the socialist convictions of a Labour MP, but he only became an MP our of self interest. I wouldn't want an MP like that. There are too many already.
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  409. Donald Trump should feel at home there then.
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  410. Matthew. The BBC gets attacked from the left and the right - from narrow minded people who think that it should only represent their own views . The content here is from Tracey Ullman not the BBC. She's funny. Are they supposed to censor her to satisfy you?
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  411.  @TransoceanicOutreach  Yes, I looked it up, and the reference I found for it happening is for generals, not Emperors
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  412. *would've
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  413.  @noobadoc  I know that.
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  414. I think it's more because she's a good actress and they want to attract wider audiences.
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  415. It might blow your mind but it's drama not history so a bit of imaginative casting is o.k.
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  416.  @larryscott3982  It's a French company actually.
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  417. She co wrote and starred in French and Saunders TV series. She wrote and starred in Absolutely Fabulous TV series and film.
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  418. The blame for the Wars of the Roses is not easy to assign. Margaret did tend to treat the Duke of York as an enemy and so turned him into one, but that was the way of politics where she came from in France. You can also blame the fact that Henry VI was a very weak King and that he had very incompetent and corrupt men around him. Another person you could blame is Edward III for having so many sons, and whatever disease took away his eldest son, The Black Prince. She was from France but she was Margaret of Anjou, not Margaret of France.
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  419. It is in English. It starts in the middle of a scene. The Duke of Gloucester (The Lord Protector) says the King is old enough to give a reproof himself, (we don't know to whom) and the Queen should not interfere. The Queen says, if the King's old enough why does he need a protector? Gloucester says he will resign as Protector if the King wants him to. Suffolk or Sussex (can't remember which) intervenes and tells Gloucester to resign. He starts to accuse him of acting as King, and being responsible for the everything that's going wrong in the country. The country is going to the dogs. The heir to the French throne (called the Dauphin) is winning in France where England and France are at war, and Gloucester lords it over the nobles. The Archbishop then accuses Gloucester of over overtaxing the country (via the House of Commons) and overtaxing the clergy. Someone else (we hear but don't see) accuses him of spending too much on buildings and his wife's clothes. The Queen accuses him of corruptly selling official jobs and control of towns in France, and says it's a capital offence. She says the King knows everything. She then goes down and deliberately drops her fan to humiliate the Duchess of Gloucester by getting her to pick it up. The Duchess ignores her request and gets a slap. The Duchess says she would scratch the Queen's face with her nails if she could. The King says the Queen didn't mean any harm (The King is a bit of a weak booby, if you'd not picked up on that). The Duchess threatens the Queen with revenge for the insult. The manipulative Queen pretends to be very distressed and runs off.
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  420. He makes enough comedy about himself. Novichok episode. That was hilarious.
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  421. Whoever she is? Wow. Look her up. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQAUuTLwm5Q
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  422. You're missing the point. There's more fun being made of the Trumps, Theresa May and Boris Johnson here.
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  423. Where did you hear that bollocks? Was it on this show? I lost the will to listen after a while.
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  424.  @papanino4415  Wow, it's like the kind of explanations adults give to small children.
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  425.  @dnciskkk9037  I can't seem to find any deficit projections based on Manifestos. Labour have shown how they would pay for their spending from taxes and borrowing so presumably they would not break the deficit limit. In the last few years the deficit in the UK has been less than 2% Here are some useful sites. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFXKN6MFz9I&t=15s https://www.ifs.org.uk/publications/14430 https://www.ifs.org.uk/election/2019/manifestos
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  426.    Not quite. It's more complicated. Here is the situation for Railways https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-eu-railways-eu-rules-nationalise-single-market-restrictions-labour-a8968691.html and here are the rules more generally https://www.ft.com/content/c00d8684-788c-11e9-bbad-7c18c0ea0201
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  427.  @dnciskkk9037  Don't be silly. Personal finances and government finances are not the same. Sensible governments know that you spend to invest in a recession and save in good times. That's how Germany and Portugal got out of the 2008 crash without a programme of austerity like the UK. If you are investing you have growth and assets to show for any money borrowed. A bit like borrowing to buy a house. It's unusual for that transaction to result in a loss. in the UK. The 1945 Labour government 'maxed out the credit card' as you put it, at a time when the UK was bankrupt after WW2 to rebuild Britain, create the NHS and nationalise industries and it worked. This is for you. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZNwdcESn90
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  428.  @dnciskkk9037  Manifesto. A common term around our way. We talk of nothing else :-). They are something people should read, or at least read a summary of, before voting in order to understand what it is they are voting for . Here's one example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rhz4s7m4mk
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  429.  @dnciskkk9037  https://www.le.ac.uk/economics/teach/ec1001/Lecture%20Notes%20given%20to%20Students/Lecture%20Notes%2001%20Chapter%2023.pdf
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  430.  @dnciskkk9037  Britain had lots of poverty in the 1930s and few could afford healthcare. When the war was over and soldiers returned their was a general consensus among the people and political parties that a fairer society was needed including a national health serivce. Even Churchill was promising that in his 1943 speech and 1945 Manifesto (there's that word again). You say investment in the NHS does not create growth but it does because you have a healthier and more productive workforce and also additional jobs that stimulate the economy. The reasons the NHS was a good idea then are still the reasons that it's a good idea now and Americans in the run up to their election campaign are starting to consider medicare for all as a serious issue. After all, just to call and ambulance there costs $2,500.
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  431.  @dnciskkk9037 Don't be ignorant. The term Manifesto is used by all political parties in Britain and many democracies. It has classical origins from Latin 'manifestare' to 'make public'. Your Eton educated Tories also understand and use that term. If you don't know what it is, what on earth do you think you are voting for - hot air? P.S. Have you never seen the Tory Manifesto or do you consider it 'too left wing'? Manifestos are the documents against which political parties expect to be held to account by the voters. Here's the Tory one for you - just to prove it exists https://assets-global.website-files.com/5da42e2cae7ebd3f8bde353c/5dda924905da587992a064ba_Conservative%202019%20Manifesto.pdf
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  432. They are successful in their own right.
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  433. Liam Payne from One Direction. Funny how so many people have forgotten him so quickly.
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  434. I don't think it's snobbery. It's more about self preservation.
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  435. TheDissmaster. It's excellent acting. She is deliberately hammy towards the end to let the audience know that she is being deliberately manipulative in setting up the Duchess of Gloucester for a fall (which comes later). Also the whole cast had the aim of trying to make the play as understandable as possible to audiences not used to watching Shakespeare in order to reach wider audiences.
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  436. TheDissmaster10. Well I suppose you have to live up to your name but you'd be in a tiny minority of critics who have seen this. I've seen loads of Shakespeare plays. I'm a big fan of his and I really enjoyed this production. I don't know how many productions of his plays you have seen. Plays are not like TV shows or films. There are big variations in productions depending on the director's interpretation. P.S. You are supposed to cringe at her behaviour in this one.
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  437. TheDissmaster10. No big expert. Just a lover of Shakespeare's plays. You have your opinion and I have mine that's all, but I would encourage you to watch the whole play, if you haven't seen it, and its companion plays in The Hollow Crown before coming to final judgement. Cheerio
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  438. She was white in history, from the south of France but in a drama it's not necessary to be so precise with casting.
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  439.  @Vladpryde  They are known as Shakespeare's 'history' plays as they are based on history but they don't follow the history accurately. He gives the priority to drama.
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  440. It's not punchline comedy.
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  441. It's wise to let Julie Walters 'have a feel'. She was once a nurse.
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  442. @AlexanderFodor Hamlet in the play says he is feigning madness (so that Claudius won't think him a threat.).It's not real. Though there is a question of whether he really does get near it in his distress.
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  443. David Walliams is a comedian and a very successful children's author. The other guy was in the band 'One Direction'.
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  444. Henry offering to join Cromwell in the local archery competition, anonymously, leaves Cromwell speechless, not knowing how to respond. Henry probably thinks it would be fun and an honour for Cromwell. Cromwell probably thinks the archers would end up lose their heads for speaking their minds with their usual freedom.
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  445. And here's the next stage in the Gloucesters' downfall https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jjr5wjIiJ7E
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  446. Othello was often played by white actors blacked up. Lawrence Oliver played him and so did Orson Welles.
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  447.  @BloodOfYeshuaMessiah  Queen Margaret was regarded with suspicion as a foreigner. She was French but since we're friendlier with the French now perhaps her casting is a metaphor to show that 's she's different from the rest of the Court. It doesn't bother me anyway. In Shakespeare's time all the women were played by men.
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  448. No. It's Tracey Ullman in disguise.
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  449.  @daredemontriple6  From recalling more info now, I believe you have it right.
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  450. @codalex Then you are a criminal
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  451. *Corbett
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  452. Yes, it's funny how the Tories can never spend more on the NHS unless it's to hand the extra funding over to private companies, who only spend a proportion of that on patients because the rest goes to shareholders.
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  453.  @dnciskkk9037  We spend proportionally less than the rest of Europe, who mostly have insurance based systems. If we spent the same that would improve things. The left is not in power I remind you, and does not have the power to alter government data collections. It's the Tory government which doesn't collect adequate data if that is a problem. I saw some recent facts that stated that immigrants actually cost the NHS less than they pay in. EU travellers may use the NHS free because this is part of a reciprocal arrangement which involves British travellers having free access to EU healthcare systems. The left is also not in control of immigration as they are not in government. The Tories won't spend on public services and that includes not spending enough on the Border Force that would be the ones to detect illegal immigrants. You are just reading all the bilge spewed out by Tory papers, The sun and The Daily Mail, I expect.
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  454.  @dnciskkk9037 Here are some current controls on drug prices for drugs supplied to the NHS . The rules and limits are set by the UK government it seems within an overall EU framework. However the rules can be changed in the future at any time provided they are within an EU framework and that constraint (which is not much as it just describes a scheme without figures) can be completely abandoned if we Brexit. Also the NHS saves a lot by buying generic (patent expired) medicines which are cheaper than branded ones but the discussion document that Corbyn got hold of saw discussions about US intentions to extend patents on drugs which would mean American drug companies could charge the NHS more on those drugs for longer. https://uk.practicallaw.thomsonreuters.com/w-005-2025?transitionType=Default&contextData=(sc.Default)&firstPage=true&bhcp=1 fber.
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  455.  @dnciskkk9037  Because the Tories will have to cave in to some demands from the Trump administration in order to get a trade deal with him and what they are telling the British public is not what Trump is telling the US public, which is more in line with the leaked document. The Tories don't really care about the poor or the NHS. Dominic Cummings himself has said so if it wasn't obvious to anyone from their ideology and track record, so it will be no skin of their back to concede to the USA on these areas.
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  456.  @dnciskkk9037  The US will be a dominant partner in a trade deal. I don't see Trump giving any ground to us as we will need a deal more than he will. This is from a Metro report on the leaked trade discussions document with the USA. 'The notes detail six preliminary meetings between British and American trade negotiators between July 2017 and July 2019, a few weeks before Johnson became Prime Minister. UK Officials describe the discussions as ‘the first lap’ of talks on a wide range of policy areas they ‘might expect to feature’ in a post Brexit trade deal. The health service is mentioned a few times along with US negotiators talking about the cost of medicine and the possibility of lengthening patents. Once patents expire the NHS is able to buy generic rather than branded versions of the same drug. They are typically shorter in the UK which is one of the reasons why medicine is much cheaper than in the US. American negotiators said there is ‘a lot of conversation’ in the states about drug prices and that ‘looking at what other countries pay is causing angst’. But fact-checkers say there is nothing to suggest the UK have agreed with US demands (Picture: Getty Images) They have concerns the US is ‘not getting a good deal in pharmaceutical industries.’ It echoes American trade objectives published in February which say they ‘full market access’ for pharmaceutical products. This would limit the control the UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has over which drugs can be given to patients. ' Read more: https://metro.co.uk/2019/11/28/labours-nhs-sale-document-leak-fact-checked-11232546/?ito=cbshare Twitter: https://twitter.com/MetroUK | Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MetroUK/ That's it now. I'm not wasting any more time on a blockhead.
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  457.    It's project look up the facts, not project fear. The people had few facts when they voted 3 years ago. Anyway since you are set on it, no facts will get in your way obviously.
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  458.  @dnciskkk9037  In the US for example, it costs $250 for an asthma inhaler. Do we really want the NHS to move onto unrestrained US pharma prices? That's just a licence to treat our public services as free money they can extort. There's even been a case of the NHS being charged £1000 for a bottle of mouthwash to help treat the side effects of chemo patients. NICE is a body of doctors that examines whether a drug is effective. If you take NICE away we're open to all sorts of expensive drugs that don't necessarily work well. You have a naive faith in Trump's sense of 'fairness' and if we have zero tariffs under WTO rules we can still be charged tariffs by other countries (e.g The EU who will charge our farmers over 40% on their beef and lamb exports to the EU). Patrick Minford who is a pro hard Brexit economist has admitted that zero tariffs under WTO rules will destroy British agriculture and manufacturing as they won't be able to compete with cheap tariff free imports from countries with low costs because their labour forces are paid very little and have few if any rights.
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  459.  @dnciskkk9037  Get an education. I do know about WTO because I looked up WTO rules on the WTO website. What research have you done? Don't answer that. I can't be bothered with you anymore. Just keep your head stuck in the sand.
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  460.  @dnciskkk9037  I do understand the topics I do use my own words mostly but I support it with independent evidence which I link. You accuse people of all sorts without ever having done any research yourself and without independent evidence to back up your claims. I don't think you are even capable of understanding the evidence presented to you. Democracy is not set in aspic. More votes does not mean less democracy.
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  461.  @dnciskkk9037  The Tories have not denied that the document Jeremy has is genuine. It doesn't matter who leaked it to whom. If it's genuine, it's genuine. I'm not going to waste my time anymore because you wouldn't accept any evidence that contradicts your views, no matter how genuine.
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  462. It's very good acting. They are trying to make Shakespeare understandable to the widest possible audience. Also, this is acting within acting, as the Queen is pretending to be offended at the end, but she is a manipulative person who is setting the Duchess up for a fall.
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  463. It means letting Boris do what he wants. Ultimately leaving the EU without a deal and if he gets elected on Thursday he'll neuter Parliament, The Supreme Court and the opposition, open up all media to tell lies with impunity, and gerrymander marginal constituencies, to try to ensure no opposition party ever gets elected again. (See page 48 of the Tory Manifesto)
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  464. My generation would say ' I'm fine' when asked 'how are you?' in the UK. I think 'not too bad' was more an older generation thing. The latest expression now is 'I'm good' which is not even grammatical as strictly speaking it should be 'I'm well'.
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  465. New Zealand has been doing that for some time. We'd be starting at the bottom with trade deals often taking up to 10 years and in the meantime we'd be trading on WTO terms which is like the 4th division of trading. No country in the world trades on just those terms for that reason. They all want deals but you can bet New Zealand trades with their nearest neighbours. They don't try to import fresh food from half way around the world. Much of our fresh food comes from Europe and will become much more expensive if we hard Brexit out unless we place zero tariffs on it but then our own agricultural industry will fail as it won't be able to compete and at the same time Europe will be putting 40% plus tariffs on British lamb and beef. That's just one example from one type of trade. No one has ever pointed to concrete benefits for the average person or the country from a no deal Brexit. It will only benefit a wealthy elite of corporations and other tax avoiders who want to be free of EU financial regulations and tax harmonisation rules. The less tax, the less funds for public services like health and education.
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  466.  @1jasonmatthews766  What policies are you referring to? New Zealand was never in the EU, so it never left the EU.
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  467.  @1jasonmatthews766  I will have a look for info on the New Zealand economic model, but I don't buy the argument about the power of the unions. The power is always with employers and unions grew just to try and add a bit of fairness and balance by giving some power to employees, so that those creating the wealth don't see it all siphoned off into shareholders and executives pockets. Of course you can sometimes get corrupt unions just as you can get corrupt employers. One good model of union participation is the German model. Guess who drafted the German constitution after WW2? - the British! We already had our own rather rickety model which has never been updated in the same way.
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  468.  @1jasonmatthews766  I've looked. It doesn't look like a great model to me - maybe some macro benefits but not for individual New Zealanders https://www.commonspace.scot/articles/12624/unstable-and-unequal-new-zealand-economy-not-good-model-independent-scotland
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  469.  @1jasonmatthews766  Don't tell me. I lived through it. It was Thatcher who destroyed the coalmines in Britain when she decided to close them down. She didn't put anything in their place either and the North of England is still suffering from that blight today. Hopefully Cobyn's plan to create jobs by investing in green industries will help there. I will look at some documentaries on Germany in the 60s but why the 60s? It seemed to be doing fine in later decades. The 60s is so close to the disaster of WW2.
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  470.  @1jasonmatthews766  I'm still looking at Germany. I see their economic production overtook ours in the 1960s . I'm looking at the details of that. However the lack of manufacturing in the North has other causes. 1) The loss of the British Empire which was a major export area 2) In WW1 the USA took advantage of Britain's difficulties to steal their markets - as the saying goes, 'one man's difficulty is another man's opportunity'. 3) Britain lost its markets for cotton and wool which was produced by northern mills. A newly independent India was a competitor and produced cheaper cotton 3) Thatcher closed down the mines and didn't replace them with anything.
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  471.  @1jasonmatthews766  I'm not sure about the pay cut. I didn't see that but the German finance guy cut very high taxes (85%) even on average type incomes) to 18%. There was also a lot of borrowing and investment (which the UK is bad at doing but which Corbyn proposes). Brtain's weakness in the 1960s was lack of industrial investment in contrast to Germany. In Germany the state was very influential in stimulating growth in the economy. German workers did work hard and worked long hours. They still have a reputation for that and they are well educated and well trained. There is no snobbishness about trades. If they did take a pay cut that may be because they had tax cuts also and with the constitution the British wrote for them, workers representative bodies would have been consulted and agreed the pay cuts. It's always easier to proceed with such actions if workers are consulted and can see the longer term benefits rather than having cuts imposed on them, but as I say the tax cuts may have made up for the pay cuts. It sounds like a sort of social contract.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wirtschaftswunder
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  472.  @1jasonmatthews766  Labour's Manifesto is not fairy tales. It's no more radical than the Manifesto implemented by Labour in the 1945 government and if you read (Tory) Churchill's speech of 1943 and his Manifesto of 1945, he was planning to implement similar things (though not all the nationalisation but he was planning to introduce an NHS and education reforms - lots of investment planned). By the way, here's a good idea and one of the reasons many German workers might work hard (even if it wasn't in their nature) https://www.worker-participation.eu/National-Industrial-Relations/Countries/Germany/Financial-Participation/Basic-Data-on-Profit-Sharing-Employee-Share-Ownership
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  473.  @1jasonmatthews766  Which 'People's Party.' There is no British People's Party it seems, only a EU one. That's irrelevant in a British election.
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  474. It's a bitchy song.
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  475. Well this is not shit.
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  476. That's the difference between prose and poetry.
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  477. *Walliams
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  478. Julie Walters, not 'grandma', thank you.
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  479. David Sanchez. Where is it incompetent? You realise that the hammy part is meant to convey to the audience that the Queen is being deliberately manipulative in order to set up the Duchess?
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  480. It exercises the brain, particularly non thinking ones. It's not child abuse.
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  481.  @daisybuttercup6801  I disagree. Maths and science is rules based at the basic levels whereas Shakespeare stimulates the creative mind. We need both to become rounded people. Who do you know who has ever said that Shakespeare dulled their mind? They may have found it dull if they did not understand it but that's not the same thing at all.
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  482. You want more of this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpj0xeTnqBk
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  483. I don't suppose you'd mind as long as it was your political agenda.
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  484. Where's your sense of humour? This show, by Tracy Ullman, not the BBC, parodies politicians from left and right of the spectrum. By the comments, we see who it is that has no humour now.
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  485. Shailesh Kumar. I'm not a conservative like you, and the jokes go both ways in this show. They make fun of Jeremy Corbyn too.
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  486. That sounds rather paranoid to me. No one can destroy people's power of discrimination unless people let them, and I certainly wouldn't classify the BBC as trying to do that. The BBC are hardly anarchists. You're barking up the wrong tree there, or perhaps you are just barking.
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  487. @kateebot it's bothered in English too. Catherine Tate's speech in this is London slang (chav)
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  488. It's a patriarchal society and monarchy at this point was all powerful.
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  489.  @jackmatthew1880  I don't follow your reasoning. Cromwell executed Henry's orders. What restrictions did Henry have? Maybe some existing since the time of Magna Carta but those mainly benefited the Barons. Henry did have to bring people to trial but no one dared acquit someone if Henry was against them.
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  490. That's typical of the style of jewellery she wears.
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  491. The Empire ended years ago. All empires do end eventually. You can't rely on exploiting other countries for ever.
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  492.  @ioanpena  Only by consent. They can vote for independence from the UK in referendums. Just because they've voted to stay previously, doesn't mean they will still vote to stay in the UK after a hard Brexit.
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  493. A place that sells chips (fries to you).
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  494.  @walterguerson4265  Are you a troll or have you had a sense of humour bypass? This is more poking fun at the Trumps, and at British politicians Theresa May and Boris Johnson, than it is at Merkel.
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  495. Fun fact. Red hair is thought to have come from the Neanderthals who interbred with our ancestors. Many of us have a little bit of Neanderthal DNA.
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  496. I'm willing to bet you've never been a real centurion. It's all about play acting isn't it? Nothing to get worked up about. It is a great watch and you'll forget about the casting once you get absorbed in the story, I'm sure.
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  497. Strangely the last bird to be caught in the video was just drowned and left in the water. Do they just kill when they are not hungry or is it that they don't like their birds too wet?
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  498. It's Mum in Britain not Mom.- but he is meant to be saying Ma'am, short for Madam. He just needed to lengthen the vowel sound.
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  499. It's the will of the people to damage their own futures and it hasn't been implemented yet. Woe to the politicians who are not ensuring this.
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  500. Who says?
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  501. That recital was full of feeling. If you didn't see or hear that you maybe need glasses and a hearing aid.
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  502. Not really academic. Just explaining the plot since you asked.
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  503. Possibly he did, and was making a joke about it, but it gave her the idea for a story.
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  504. It's not news dumbass. It's a comedy show.
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  505.  @fatfat1877  You don't seem to understand that there are certain consequences of Brexit. It's not the EU choosing to be difficult. It's that you've left a club with privileges. You are not longer paying the fee to be in that club so you no longer get the privileges. I direct you to a very pro hard Brexit economist that Jacob Rees Mogg says 'is always right' - Patrick Minford, and even he admits that a hard Brexit will destroy British manufacturing and agriculture but he does not care about that because other aspects of a hard Brexit matter to him more. We are no longer in the 18th century. World trade is no much more globalised and we no longer have an Empire to exploit. Trade is never entirely free. Countries are protectionist, and want to gain an advantage. There are trade offs and compromise that have to be made. Trade with the rest of the world is no more 'moral' than trade with the EU. Mark Rutte, the Netherlands P.M has said that no one of significance in the EU is now pushing for greater Union. WTO rules mean that if you place tariffs on the EU for certain goods, for instance, you have to place the same tariffs on those goods for all countries you trade with. If you place no tariffs, you have to have no tariffs on those goods for all countries you trade with. If Britain seeks to break the rules, it will be a treated as a pariah in world trade by many countries who won't want to deal with us, and won't feel they have to either. The US and China have to come to some arrangement because they are dependent on each other in many ways. That's not true of a small country like the UK and we'll be even smaller if Scotland goes independent and stays in the EU. You are naive about what's possible - just like Boris who lost so many votes in Parliament when he sought to ignore the rules. He could probably have got his deal through. It had been approved but he pulled it back. Why? Because what he really wants is to crash out with a no deal which would suit his rich backers more. Do you know that financial speculators are making millions and stand to make millions more, after a hard Brexit from betting against UK economic performance. It's a practice called 'shorting'. Also may of his rich tax avoiding backers want to avoid tighter rules being introduced by the EU to prevent offshore tax avoidance and money laundering. There's no benefit to the average or ordinary person from Brexit. The Tories' success is that they've persuaded so many people that there will be some benefit.
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  506.  @fatfat1877  Yes the EU has trade deals with nations but these deals took many years to agree. We will lose those deals the moment we leave the EU and it will take years to replace them if we ever can. Other countries prefer deals with a big trading block like the EU rather than with small countries outside of the EU, as we will be. When we are competitors of the EU we won't be competing on a level playing field. They will be the existing and preferred deal partner for many nations outside of the EU - not Britain. The EU is protectionist but not against those countries within the EU. It's protectionist against those outside of the EU. That's the whole point of the EU to protect living standards and other standards including human rights and workers rights. (( Treated as a pariah by who? Do you really think foriegn nations will care about a trade conflict between the EU and UK? )) You miss the point here. Nations won't want to deal with a trading partner who doesn't observe any trade rules or agreements and may undercut them or switch trading partners at a moment's notice ((they wont, especially if they have tariff free access to the UK))You miss the point again. If they have free tariff access to the UK, British Industry and Agriculture will die off. Also if they have free tariff access then we'll have to give that to the EU also under WTO rules but the EU will be able to apply tariffs to us under those same rules. If we don't abide by the rules, the EU, the largest consumer trade area on our doorstep will simply not trade with us but will get their imports from elsewhere such as Ireland or Scotland, if Scotland joins the EU after voting for independence, or from elsewhere inside the EU. When the UK car industry fails there will be plenty of German cars for the EU to buy instead.
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  507. Plenty of white people have played ethnic roles in the past. Did you complain about those?
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  508. No, but I'm not hung up about the ethnicity of actors playing parts.
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  509. Leighton Young. In drama, there is a suspension of disbelief which can happen if the acting and the production is good. For instance there is loads of historical inaccuracy in Shakespeare's history plays but he can be excused because he does it for the sake of making the drama better. I don't really require a Southern French woman to play Queen Margaret in order to believe her motivations,, and in Shakespeare's time there weren't even any women actors playing the female parts. No one troubled about that. There's no point in getting worked up about such things. It's a drama, not a history or a documentary.
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  510. * Walliams
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  511. @BauerBiwi that's because Germany invested in its own industry and public sector. The U.K did not and sold it all off. Partly the banks fault, and partly poor political decisions.
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  512. The bit at the end was meant to be hammy so the audience knows she is being deliberately manipulative to set up the Duchess of Gloucester.
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  513. Old Lady? That's Julie Walters.
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  514. *corniest not most corniest
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  515.  @mathieuleader8601  Yes
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  516. No. They are generous in allowing casting according to best actress regardless of background. remember Romans in Western films never seem to be played by Italians. It's a drama so a bit of poetic licence is allowed.
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  517. Not if you like Shakespeare
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  518. She died having plastic surgery. It's a modern Aesop's fable.
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  519. Which ones?
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  520.  @dianeunderhill8506  It's dramatic licence. If it helps people from diverse backgrounds to take an interest in English history, I don't mind. It didn't affect the main characters.
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  521. I wonder if we'll be swallowed up in the
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  522.  John Henshaw  Are you? I wouldn't draw attention to it.
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  523.  John Henshaw  Are you voting for more of this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpj0xeTnqBk
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  524. Perhaps they thought you had a sense of humour.
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  525. I read your comment and I thought you didn't sound well.
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  526.  @pauldailey4477  What do you mean? Your comment looks anti Jewish. That's what I meant.
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  527.  @pauldailey4477  You can't be very intelligent to ask me a question like that. I don't curse anyone or judge them on characteristics they were born with. That would be stupid. I am not Jewish by the way. I just don't like bigotry and race hatred.
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  528. You've been at the Ouija board again, haven't you?
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  529. Nyctohylophiliac. Keep your hair on. It's only a play.
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  530. That's the non humorous way of seeing it, by someone who's not a comedian.
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  531. This is comedy but it's not degrading any nationalities in particular. Tracey Ullman's show also pokes fun at lots of British politicians, Monarchy, and character types.
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  532. Alison Weir wrote a good book about it but it's a history book not a novel
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  533. Not necessarily. She's fully asleep when it happens.
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  534. *did pursue
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  535. Happily they were very fortunate. Are you watching a different video? Tom Hiddleston isn't in this.
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  536. water baby. I think you mean "concerned to increase equality of opportunity". Both programmes were great by the way.
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  537. Luca Blavatsky's comment is silly and patently untrue. Your comment is equally silly and patently untrue. However culture is a constantly evolving thing and cross cultural influences have happened all throughout history. It's not like it's something you lock in a box to stop people from "stealing" it.
    1
  538. water baby. I meant what I said "equality of opportunity". I suppose "equality of outcome" would be a possible result of "equality of opportunity" but not necessarily. Anyway Shakespeare doesn't have great claims to historical accuracy either and it is a drama not a history programme. I think the BBC just wants wider audiences to enjoy and get engaged with Shakespeare including abroad in places like the USA which they can sell to. The French recently did a series about their own King Louis XIV called "Versailles", and they cast English actors in the lead parts and did it in English so that they could sell it to more countries abroad. In drama you have to suspend disbelief anyway. You imagine people as the characters they are playing.
    1
  539. I think Mark Rylance conveyed that by his acting and also that he couldn't allow his expression to be too revealing before Henry but Henry's not the most perceptive man.
    1
  540. @AL AL Well their lives are like a soap opera for some. That's all i meant. They do charity work, support good causes, represent Britain symbolically, engage in parades and traditional ceremonies, and participate in a bit of farming etc.
    1
  541. It's not against white people you silly person
    1
  542. People don't get much exposure to her performances of Shakespeare's works.
    1
  543. Untypical actually.
    1
  544. It's set in the wars of the roses. The house of York versus the house of Lancaster.
    1
  545. woman
    1
  546. Well he was chums with Mussolini and a fan of Hitler.
    1
  547. MRWorldGuy. Don't keep banging on. It's not racist either way.
    1
  548. Decanus Gaius Publius. I'm chilled now.
    1
  549. Four candles or fork handles
    1
  550.  @stevekaczynski3793  Lol. I think that joke passed over many heads.
    1
  551. Happiness is unexciting. A Chinese curse is 'May you live in interesting times'. I think 'not too bad' is an older generation thing from people who were taught not to grumble during the hard years of WW2. My generation would say 'I'm fine' and the younger generation now say 'I'm good' which is not quite grammatically correct.
    1
  552. To be fair Margaret probably wouldn't have got so involved in the political situation if the King had been stronger but Henry was a weak King and sometimes suffered from mental illness. She did cause problems because she automatically assumed York was an enemy and always treated him as such. This turned him into an enemy. Her assessment of the political situation was based on how things worked in France and she may have been conscious that Henry's line had seized the throne by force rather than inheritance back in Henry IV's time (Henry VI's grandfather). England had had Magna Carta by this time which boosted the strength of the nobles. There's no evidence that the real Margaret was prone to "fake outbursts of emotion". That's just Shakespeare writing some dramatic scenes into the play.
    1
  553. Eh? You jest surely? It's English.
    1
  554.  @aa.a.9359  She may be thin for her size but she's pretty tall and looks quite athletic in build.
    1
  555. Don't look to Shakespeare for historical accuracy. He changed things for dramatic purposes, and in his time Queen Margaret would have been played by a man. For history, read a history book or watch a documentary.
    1
  556. @Aisling What excuse? I'm not disagreeing with you.
    1
  557. *Reepicheep
    1
  558.  @danielcooper1294  No worries.😊
    1
  559. Veles7. Actually it seems to be getting most views from English (and perhaps other) people objecting to the casting than from people rushing to see the play, so I'm not sure they banked on getting a greater audience through this casting, but undoubtedly felt they should cast her on merit.
    1
  560. Subtitles are there for non English speakers and for Americans
    1
  561. Also, we are a multicultural society with a brilliant selection of musical styles to choose from. Who selects the final entries, I can only think it's people in their dotage, and if the final selection to choose from are the best of the entries, why don't we do more to encourage and shocase new talent and encourage talented composers to enter their songs. Perhaps they are put off now because the competition has a reputation for naffness. Sorry if I offend anyone, but it's a frustrating mystery.
    1
  562. But he's doing it ironically.
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  563. That's the point. It's only a spoof.
    1
  564. This video is an eyesight test. Congratulations your eyesight is good.
    1
  565. You can always stay cheerful with a nice cup of Assam tea. My favourite tea.
    1
  566. It's his job to keep the show going, whatever it takes.
    1
  567. The actor who plays the Irish character, Colonel Despard.
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  568. Qu'importe.
    1
  569. Shakespeare a ecrit des drames. Ses histoires n'etaient pas precises. C'est pourquoi j'ai dit "Qu'importe", ou plutot n'importe.
    1
  570. Je connais Shakespeare tres bien aussi l'histoire. Mais en voyant le drame il faut suspend toujours l'incredulite.
    1
  571. J'aime beaucoup l'histoire et je la connais bien, mais je ne me trompe pas que l'histoire et la meme chose que le drame. Bonne journee a vous aussi mon petit lapin effraye.
    1
  572. Who is Mary? The Queen is called Margaret. Margaret is a manipulative Queen who wants to bring down the Gloucesters who have power over the King because the Duke of Gloucester is the Lord Protector (like a Regent). She sets up this scene then pretends to be upset at the consequences (the Duchess of Gloucester's threat of revenge) in order to justify the bringing down of the Gloucesters (which happens later on). Here is the first part of the bringing down of the Gloucesters https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jjr5wjIiJ7E
    1
  573. That's o.k. I hope you understand what's really going on in the scene a bit better now.
    1
  574. Well spotted. That's Jennifer Saunders.
    1
  575. It's just about finding some story to talk about on a chat show. Graham Norton loves it when they tell stories like this. I hope they wouldn't be name dropping in real life.
    1
  576. Colt45 You must be old.
    1
  577. Why do we always have such a poor selection of songs for the Eurovision song contest. We lose because we select from a pool or poor and ersatz music when we are capbable of much better. it's no good blaming the voting sytem. Even if it is stacked against us, If we are going to lose anyway why don't we risk putting some decent music forward so that we have something to look forward to listening to instead of churning out the same old stale crap?
    1
  578. Orange was a mobile phone company. I think it still operates under that name in France.
    1
  579. The word literally is redundant in that case. I think some people use literally because they think people won't believe them or think they are talking figuratively, unless they make it clear by saying literally so it does have a valid purpose.
    1
  580.  @lakshmithasridhar3175  Some people assert that Edward IV was not the son of the Duke of York but was illegitimate. It's certainly complicated. No wonder there was a war between claimants.
    1
  581. WTO will be what you get if there's no deal, but no country in the world trades just on WTO terms as it's the 4th division of trading. They all look for deals with big blocks like the EU or other big countries/blocks but these can often take 10 years or more to get. We'll be starting at the bottom and any trade negotiating partners will have us over a barrel because we'll need a deal more than they do. Have you looked at what will happen to the UK under WTO terms - whether we set tariffs or zero tariffs? Not only that, but we have zero experienced trade deal negotiators because we relied on the EU for that for the last 40 years. The EU and other countries have experienced trade negotiators who will wipe the floor with us after Brexit.
    1
  582. @J Robs We are at the moment but that doesn't mean we can't go into a big recession and we are not as big as some of the trading partners we'll try to deal with. Look at the standards (or lack of) that the USA maintains for its own people. They'll hardly want to change them in order to trade with us. This is just one example. I could add others https://edition.cnn.com/2019/10/17/health/baby-foods-arsenic-lead-toxic-metals-wellness/index.html
    1
  583.    At the expense of the health and safety of its people and with the benefits of growth going mostly to the already wealthy. It's a capitalist wild west.
    1
  584. Charlotte Church
    1
  585. For all the complainers. Here's a snippet of recent findings on the news. Early British man (Cheddar man) had dark skin and blue eyes it seems. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-42970067/cheddar-man-dna-shows-early-brit-had-dark-skin
    1
  586. h1 etc Why don't you stitch your mouth up and give us all a rest?
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  587. h1 etc Typical.
    1
  588. She's a very good actress. Here she is deliberately "play acting" to entrap the Duchess of Gloucester as a prelude to bringing down the Gloucesters.
    1
  589. It's dongle. 'A dongle is a small USB device that allows you to access the internet. It can also be referred to as a Wi-Fi dongle, USB modem, internet stick, USB network adapter or USB mobile broadband stick. Dongles are popular because they offer greater flexibility than fixed line connections and can be used on the go.'
    1
  590.  @secilrods5170  I know. It's a 'double entendre' but it's not a real word outside of its original meaning. It just sounds like it might have a rude meaning, and that's funny enough. A lot of traditional British humour includes double entendres and innuendo based on plays on words.
    1
  591. You need to get out more. There are millions of them but they don' travel as they can't afford it.
    1
  592.  @stephenongley6885  It's not that they didn't give a 'rats arse about the dangers of smoking'. They weren't aware of them in those times. I think it was as late as the 1970s when the dangers of smoking began to be realised and publicised. People probably were happier but then my smoker Dad died far too young of lung cancer and so did most of his friends.
    1
  593. Has your brain been washed?
    1
  594. Speak for yourself. Don't give instructions to others.
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  595. A nation can't be cucked, only a person can.
    1
  596. No, she is manipulative and is putting on an act here. She is working to get rid of the Duchess and Duke of Gloucester as the Duke has control over the King. Here she is setting them up for a fall later on, by exposing them as a threat to the crown.
    1
  597. It was not from England originally. Do some research.
    1
  598. It is a sonnet. Sonnet 29 as a matter of fact.
    1
  599.  @brucewilson1958  As the young folk say these days 'Don't beat yourself up about it'.
    1
  600. *wouldn't have or wouldn't've not wouldn't of
    1
  601. You do now because I've just said it. Of is a preposition and not part of a verb. It's "wouldn't have" or shortened to "wouldn't've". It sounds like "wouldn't of" when you say it, but it's "not wouldn't of", and not spelt that way. So many people seem not to know about constructing verb tenses these days. I don't know what schools are teaching.
    1
  602. Surely the windows would be bullet proof too? This doesn't seem like realistic protocol at all. Help would arrive quicker and he would not leave the P.M. alone
    1
  603. Samuel Girvan. That's old news.
    1
  604. the odd seagull. Odd here meaning occasional.
    1
  605. Liam Payne formerly from the band 'One Direction'
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  606. Hugh Mungas. Can't take views that diverge from your own? Sad.
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  607. Wow. Her English is better than yours.
    1
  608. An actress.
    1
  609. No. It's Julie Walters.
    1
  610.  @samanthab1923  You can read all about it if you google.
    1
  611. The jealousy is over those who have more, hope, talent, influence and more influential friends. He almost despises himself for not having these things.
    1
  612.  @iceetmarne3571  You could be right. I think it's a bit ambiguous. Does he despise himself for thinking these thoughts or because he sees himself through the eyes of others (as an outcast) and feels he doesn't match up to what he could or should be?
    1
  613. Playing Shakespeare is not about DNA and profile matching. The French King in this play is not played by a Frenchman. Richard III is not played by a disabled actor with scoliosis. How many gentiles have played Shylock in The Merchant of Venice? No one complained when Orson Welles and Laurence Oliver played Othello, and in Shakespeare's time women were played by men.
    1
  614.  @zeusgiron784  You saved my faith in humanity.
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  615.  @zeusgiron784  Exactly
    1
  616. MRWorldGuy. Alessandro De Medici, Duke of Florence will be coming to have a word with you about whether black people existed in medieval Europe. Here are some images . There are more if you look for them too. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alessandro_de%27_Medici,_Duke_of_Florence http://medievalpoc.tumblr.com/search/1400s https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/179581103870072466/?lp=true https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauresse_de_Moret http://afroeurope.blogspot.co.uk/2010/08/history-of-black-people-in-europe.html https://za.pinterest.com/pin/456482112206780114/?lp=true https://art.blognook.com/2017/08/06/medievalpoc-workshop-of-girolamo-miseroni-cameo-with-black/
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  617. Though she may have been cast as she was the best actress at the audition.
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  618. She can remember most of the Shakespeare she has played. 99% of actresses can not do that.
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  619. What do you mean? This is fine acting.
    1
  620. Isn't it one of the few channels to allow members of the public to grill politicians, or are other channels also doing this?
    1
  621.  @rdrhouse  I dunno about that Farage and Labour party members have been on the channel and this show a lot. Farage isn't even the leader of the Brexit party and he hasn't been elected in any constituency so he's been rather indulged in the number of his appearances. I've seen the Brexit leader being interviewed more these days but I can't remember his name.
    1
  622.  @rdrhouse  Well your comment is ambiguous. Are you saying Labour and Brexit get an easier ride when they appear on the BBC?.
    1
  623.  @rdrhouse  Yes because I thought I understood what you meant but you then said I was mistaken, so I ask again, what do you mean?
    1
  624.  @oniondesu9633  At least the audience members get to respond to any answers they get, so they have the last word and can give their opinions about what the politicians said.
    1
  625.  @alanroberts6059  Oops. I was thinking of UKIP but Farage has registered the name of a new party called The Reform Party, so his future moves are anyone's guess.
    1
  626.  @unclepiccolo4832  It's not a trainwreck. It's brilliant. Have you actually watched the whole thing? I have.
    1
  627.  @unclepiccolo4832  You missed my point entirely. Whoosh! Anyway I don't know how you can judge something unwatchable without watching it. I wouldn't like to find myself in court with you in the jury.
    1
  628. No it's not. It's a comedy sketch by Tracy Ullman. Did you not realise?
    1
  629. Stop thinking and leave! We can't think beyond that because we can't be bothered looking up what life will be like under WTO terms.
    1
  630. Maybe you should have watched French and Saunders or Absolutely Fabulous first.
    1
  631. If he didn't win there would only have been one season.
    1
  632.  @TheDeepState2001  It does show different aspects of life that he's operating in - the rise of Tommy Shelby is mixed with politics but the series aren't over yet so we don't know how it will end. It may end in failure.
    1
  633.  @TheDeepState2001  And fascism in this current series (Oswald Mosely) and it had Winston Churchill as a character.
    1
  634. He said lovely not loving.
    1
  635. From One Direction. Liam I believe.
    1
  636. It's your comment
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  637. It's a great performance.
    1
  638. Great performance
    1
  639. Nice teeth.
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  640. It's a piece of drama by Shakespeare. The incident probably never happened but is there for dramatic purposes. Eleanor was set up by Margaret here. Her downfall came later. Here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jjr5wjIiJ7E&t=15s
    1
  641. It's filmed in the UK. It's a UK show which is also shown in the US.
    1
  642. Old News. That's why.
    1
  643. No, but it's old now so wouldn't be funny now. This is a show about current news. You're the imbecile, by the way. How could I have 'stocks' in the BBC. It's not a public company that offers shares?
    1
  644. Shakespeare was a dramatist not a historian
    1
  645. I doubt it. The acting is good. You realise don't you that she is a manipulative character and her acting is meant to convey this to the audience. In this particular series of plays (The Hollow Crown) the actors have tried hard to make Shakespeare as understandable as they can for audiences who are perhaps unfamiliar with him and the language of his plays.
    1
  646. She was there to see Cher
    1
  647. You don't have a chit because a chit is a young woman or girl so a chit chat is a chat between young women I guess.
    1
  648. You know in those Westerns when the 'Quack doctor' comes round to sell snake oil as a 'cure all' to the people and the viewers think 'how could they be so gullible.............?'
    1
  649.    No, but there are quacks who offer snake oil in elections and Referendums.
    1
  650. Don't judge on appearances alone. This is Shakespeare - much better than Philippa Gregory.
    1
  651. Blackberries look that colour before they are ripe. I don't think it's a raspberry. They are more squishy looking.
    1
  652.  @someinteresting  O.K. but smiley faces could relate to the way he spoke rather than conveying a sense of irony about the term 'English accent'. It's Hugh Grant not Hugh Grand, but that's enough from me.
    1
  653.  @someinteresting  I had something to say and I also looked at spelling.
    1
  654.  @someinteresting  *smiley
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  655.  @someinteresting  *spelling
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  656. Decanus. There were actually some black people in Europe. The Romans had certainly brought black people into Italy. It was fashionable to have black servants. The Moors had also invaded southern Spain though as rulers they were later forced out. There must have been some others judging by the artwork. https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=black+people+in+medieval+times&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjqmKLCxYLZAhUGD8AKHUeRBrEQ_AUICigB&biw=1924&bih=954#imgrc=D0HwB96Yvn-eoM: and Shakespeare wrote about Othello (subtitled The Moor of Venice).
    1
  657. Decanus Gaius Publius. Sorry I couldn't be bothered writing it all out in full.
    1
  658. Decanus Gaius Publius. Romans had black people in the army and also as gladiators. There have been skeletons in England from Roman times (as the Romans invaded England) that have been DNA analysed and found to have origins from Africa. This is all a bit of a distraction. I'm not saying that Margaret was black but why can't some black actors have a bit of fun with Shakespeare? Are we so precious that we can't cope with that?
    1
  659. Here's a find. Google images of Alessandro De Medici, Duke of Florence. Here is his wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alessandro_de%27_Medici,_Duke_of_Florence
    1
  660. That would be Nicole.
    1
  661.  @scottishlisa3463  You can't get out of it that easily. The number of hungry kids in poverty has grown since the Conservatives have been in power. Gordon Brown when Labour were in power took many kids out of poverty (500,000 I think)
    1
  662.  @dannyjames1676  * couldn't've or couldn't have (of is a preposition not a verb)
    1
  663.  @nl396  I care.
    1
  664. Not really. I remember seeing Julie Walters in the theatre in Liverpool in the 1970s. She was an excellent actress then, though unknown nationwide. She's pretty much the same now, but everyone acts up a little on the Graham Norton show.
    1
  665. Why? Do you understand it?
    1
  666. The other girl is a famous model. Cara Delevingne.
    1
  667. @nextingting It's based on history, albeit with some imagination involved to fill the gaps.
    1
  668. I think people make an error about the meaning of literally because they associate it with literature i.e. fiction, when in fact it's referring to fact.
    1
  669. He does stay quiet sometimes. Here's an example where he stays quiet and just lets the conversation between the celebrities flow on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJEqXJRK4Q4. He judges when to get involved and when not.
    1
  670. The rivalry here between Emma Freud and Michael Ball is funny - lots of cutting comments about each other.
    1
  671. No. Take your sunglasses off.
    1
  672. Read the very many similar questions and replies in the comments, if you can be bothered. I can't be bothered repeating myself.
    1
  673. Well it's not about replicating people's actual looks. It's a drama. Henry VI in reality looked much worse than the actor here.
    1
  674. It's a take off of Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights video - the red dress version
    1
  675. Is that true?
    1
  676. I'm guessing a reference to WWII where Jews in countries under Nazi Control were largely exterminated.
    1
  677. No. Shakespeare.
    1
  678. He'd lost a lot of weight at this time.
    1
  679. Why?
    1
  680. I disagree. It doesn 't necessarily mean the casting excluded any group. She was probably the best actress they auditioned and that's why she got the part. This isn't a film. It's a TV series of Shakespeare plays. Why is race the most important characteristic to be accurate about? Shakespeare plays can never be 100% because the original characters are dead and no single person will be exactly the same as the original no matter what their race. With Shakespeare plays, you have to use your imagination.
    1
  681.  @nativevirginian8344  I never said she wasn't, but that doesn't mean she can't be played by any actress in a play. That's what acting is - being someone else during the play.
    1
  682. No. Skin colour in this drama is not significant except perhaps as a symbol that Margaret was a foreigner.
    1
  683.  @jokkergar  They didn't perhaps 'decide to change her race' so much as hire the best actress in the auditions, but her race does act as a metaphor for the fact that Margaret, as a Frenchwoman, was perceived as a foreigner and mistrusted by people on that account.
    1
  684. It's a made up word because it sounds funnier in English.
    1
  685. You noticed.
    1
  686. The gadgets are named after the fruit, not the other way around.
    1
  687. I always thought transgender meant you felt you were in the wrong body and I've not heard Eddie Izzard ever say that. Previously I've heard him say he was an 'Executive transvestite', that is, he likes to wear women's clothes, but not all the time. He varies. Is the meaning of the word 'transgender' changing or being used in different ways now? Is it just about who you identify as now and not necessarily about wanting to change the sex of your body. It's confusing.
    1
  688. She was born that way
    1
  689. *woman
    1
  690. Huawei the lads!
    1
  691. Do you mean defund? The BBC has an educational remit. You could benefit by watching.
    1