The Shakespeare Collection | As You Like It (S01E03 - BBC 1978)

Directed by Basil Coleman
Produced by Cedric Messina
Taping dates: 30 May-16 June 1978
First transmitted in the UK: 17 December 1978
First transmitted in the US: 28 February 1979
English subtitles: Click on CC

Cast & Characters:
Helen Mirren as Rosalind
Brian Stirner as Orlando
Richard Pasco as Jaques
Angharad Rees as Celia
James Bolam as Touchstone
Clive Francis as Oliver
Richard Easton as Duke Frederick
Tony Church as Banished Duke
John Quentin as Le Beau
Maynard Williams as Silvius
Victoria Plucknett as Phebe
Marilyn Le Conte as Audrey
Tom McDonnell as Amiens
David Lloyd Meredith as Corin
Arthur Hewlett as Adam
Jeffrey Holland as William
Timothy Bateson as Sir Oliver Martext
David Prowse as Charles
John Moulder-Brown as Hymen
Paul Bentall as Jacques de Boys
Peter Tullo as Palace Lord
Mike Lewin as Palace Lord
Carl Forgione as Banished Duke's Lord
Max Harvey as Banished Duke's Lord
Chris Sullivan as Dennis
Paul Phoenix as Page
Barry Holden as Page

The production was shot at Glamis Castle in Scotland, one of only two productions shot on location, with the other being The Famous History of the Life of Henry the Eight. The location shooting received a lukewarm response from both critics and the BBC's own people, however, with the general consensus being that the natural world in the episode overwhelmed the actors and the story.

Director Basil Coleman initially felt that the play should be filmed over the course of a year, with the change in seasons from winter to summer marking the ideological change in the characters, but he was forced to shoot entirely in May, even though the play begins in winter. This, in turn, meant the harshness of the forest described in the text was replaced by lush greenery, which was distinctly unthreatening, with the characters' "time in the forest appear[ing] to be more an upscale camping expedition rather than exile."

Episode 4: https://rumble.com/v6pupja-the-shakespeare-collection-julius-caesar-s01e04-bbc-1979.html