Stage-to-screen review: Henry V (BBC Hollow Crown)

The BBC's Hollow Crown series of Histories comes to an end with Henry V, the final play in Shakespeare's quartet. Although I somehow think even if it had been a collection of Shakespeare's romantic comedies it would have somehow managed to end with Henry V - it's been a Henry V kind of year, and even having skipped a couple of productions I could have seen, this is the fourth interpretation I've seen in 2012 so far. Fortunately, each version has had a fairly different take on the story. Tom Hiddleston's Prince Hal is now King Henry V, and on the surface of things he's left his reckless days behind him. But the defining event of his reign betrays that wild side - a bloody campaign against France, based on a spurious historical claim to the French throne. Meanwhile we see how some of Hal's former Eastcheap drinking buddies are getting along since he renounced their company.

Theatre review: The Sunshine Boys

PREVIEW DISCLAIMER: The performance reviewed is from a little over halfway through the preview period.

Having worked together a few years ago on Equus, Richard Griffiths and director Thea Sharrock reunite in the West End for Neil Simon's The Sunshine Boys. For the other half of the titular double act, Danny DeVito plays Willie Clark, and physically at least you can see the two of them as an old-school vaudeville comedy act, so comically mismatched are they in size - it occurred to me at times that you could almost fit an entire DeVito in Griffiths' belly. The elderly Willie lives alone in a small New York apartment, his only regular human contact being weekly visits from his nephew, and terrible agent, Ben (Adam Levy.) When a TV network plans a retrospective on vaudeville, Willie is invited to reunite with his old partner Al Lewis (Griffiths.) The trouble is the two can't stand each other, and haven't spoken in 11 years.