Vivat Rex: Volume 2: Landmark drama from the BBC Radio Archive

by William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, Martin Jenkins

Richard Burton narrates the second volume of this famous dramatic chronicle of the English Crown, a treasure of the BBC radio archive published on CD for the very first time. Vivat Rex is the landmark drama series first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1977. Over the course of 26 installments, each one narrated by Richard Burton with a full cast, the fortunes of the English Crown are followed through 225 years of British history, from Edward II’s accession in 1307 to the birth of Elizabeth I. Each drama is adapted by Martin Jenkins from the works of Shakespeare, Marlowe, and their Elizabethan contemporaries. This second volume features the final 13 installments, beginning with Martin Jarvis as Henry V and concluding with the birth of Elizabeth I. Vivat Rex includes a stirring musical score by Christopher Whelen.

13 CDs, 754 minutes

13 pages, Audio CD

First published April 16, 2015

About the author

William Shakespeare was an English playwright, poet, and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "the Bard"). His extant works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, three long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Shakespeare remains arguably the most influential writer in the English language, and his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted.
Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part-owner ("sharer") of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men after the ascension of King James VI and I of Scotland to the English throne. At age 49 (around 1613), he appears to have retired to Stratford, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive; this has stimulated considerable speculation about such matters as his physical appearance, his sexuality, his religious beliefs, and even certain fringe theories as to whether the works attributed to him were written by others.
Shakespeare produced most of his known works between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were primarily comedies and histories and are regarded as some of the best works produced in these genres. He then wrote mainly tragedies until 1608, among them Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth, all considered to be among the finest works in the English language. In the last phase of his life, he wrote tragicomedies (also known as romances) and collaborated with other playwrights.
Many of Shakespeare's plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime. However, in 1623, John Heminge and Henry Condell, two fellow actors and friends of Shakespeare's, published a more definitive text known as the First Folio, a posthumous collected edition of Shakespeare's dramatic works that includes 36 of his plays. Its Preface was a prescient poem by Ben Jonson, a former rival of Shakespeare, that hailed Shakespeare with the now famous epithet: "not of an age, but for all time".

Reviews

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the second and final volume of Vivat Rex and covers Henry V to the birth of Elizabeth I. There is much to love, from the use of Shakespeare, to the vocal acting. But honesty, I was totally thrilled to hear Diana Rigg as Anne Boleyn and Sian Phillips as Catherine.

[Anisha Inkspill · Rating 3 out of 5]

(3.5 stars)

This second volume is also just over 12 hours and has 6 of 14 plays.

It was a touch disappointing to discover that the drama does not end with Elizabeth I but her birth. I would have liked to have seen how Renaissance writers portrayed a ruling queen.

My favourites in this volume were John Ford’s Perkin Warbeck and Shakespeare’s Henry VIII.

As a production I preferred volume 1 for its entertainment, but as an overall experience, I got more from listening to both volumes than previously watching or listening to Shakespeare history plays.

[Koit · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a superb rendition of the notable playwrights. Part Two takes us from Agincourt through to the birth of Elizabeth. The plays are probably generally better known than the ones represented in Part One, but that possibly makes the striking performance even more superb -- that the roles so often cast are brought to life in such a fulfilling way in this radio episode is a testament to the quality of the producers, actors and the production team.