#this is in reference to david tennant playing hamlet

[emotinalsupportturtle]

wrong David holding the skull

[princeloww]

DAVID TENNANT ROLES STARTERPACK

(Different roles, where to find them and what they're like!!!) (+ more that I didn't go into included at the end)

*disclaimer: this is sort of UK orientated, 'cos I don't know any American streaming services or where stuff is available in other countries, so PLEASE comment other places you can watch things!!!!

- Takin' Over the Asylum (CAMPBELL BAIN)

Follows a DJ and a group of patients trying to keep a radio station going in a mental hospital. David plays one of the main characters, Campbell Bain, a mostly upbeat and energetic young boy with lots of enthusiasm and spirit. Some angst!

☆ YOUTUBE (free)

- Blackpool (PETER CARLISLE)

A body is found in an arcade run by Ripley Holden, and him and his entire family are pulled into the murder investigation surrounding it. DI Peter Carlisle is working on the case, and highly suspicious of Ripley. He's a pretty major character and has a romantic plot - as well as a few funny musical numbers. Includes sex scenes.

☆ UKTV PLAY (free in UK), AMAZON PRIME VIDEO

- Casanova (GIACOMO CASANOVA)

The (mostly sexual) adventures of Giacomo Casanova, a charming and fraudulent man who falls in love very quickly and very dramatically with a lot of people, all while essentially bullshitting through life and jumping on every opportunity to make money. Includes sex scenes but also angst, such as illness, injuries, some violence, and general suffering.

☆ MYFLIXERX.TO (free), AMAZON

- Recovery (ALAN HAMILTON)

A man and his family coping with the recovery and rehabilitation process after he (Alan, David Tennant) suffers from brain damage. Angsty. Lots of crying, suicide references, head injury stuff.

☆ YOUTUBE (free)

- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (BARTY CROUCH JR)

I recommend pirating this one so you're not supporting JK Rowling. DT plays Barty Crouch JR, an antagonist and the son of Barty Crouch. He's kind of a minor character, as he's not actually in a lot of scenes.

☆ Probably on most pirating sites (my go to is MYFLIXERX.TO)

- Learners (CHRISTOPHER ??)

Lighthearted movie about a woman trying to pass her driving test. David plays Chris, her driving instructor. He's a bit of a dork, very sweet and kind. Has a love plot, briefly fights a guy. No major angst.

☆ YOUTUBE (free)

- Hamlet (HAMLET)

Hamlet. Prince of Denmark wants vengeance after his father's death. I haven't actually watched this one yet but I assume it's got the same amount of angst and drama as Hamlet typically does.

☆ AMAZON PRIME VIDEO

- Single Father (DAVE TYLER)

After a fatal car accident, Dave Tyler (DT) is left to parent four children on his own. Still struggling through grief, Dave falls in love again and attempts to hide it. Has LOTS of crying, lots of kissing, sex scenes, DT being miserable and sobbing, etc.

☆ MYFLIXERX.TO (free)

- Rex Is Not Your Lawyer (REX ALEXANDER)

Unaired pilot. Only 40 minutes. Show wasn't picked up, but it is very good. Rex is a successful and skilled lawyer who is forced to stop practising when he starts having panic attacks every time he speaks in court. He decides instead to coach people who want to represent themselves. Lots of DT in very tight suits. American accent. Not MAJOR angst but he does has daddy issues and a panic disorder, so.

☆ YOUTUBE (free)

- Fright Night (PETER VINCENT)

A kid discovers that his neighbour is a vampire, and he seeks out a famous vampire slayer to help him. Peter Vincent (DT) does not live up to his name, and turns out to actually be sort of pathetic. No major angst, not a lot of clothes, no romance, but lots of eyeliner. He's very bisexual. Violence, vampire horror, creepy neighbour.

☆ DISNEY+, AMAZON PRIME

- The Decoy Bride (JAMES ARBER)

Celebrity Lara Tyler tries to get married to her author fiancé James Arber, but the paparazzi interrupts the wedding. Desperate to keep it private, she takes James to the island that he based his book on. Somehow, the paparazzi still find them, and they hire a decoy bride to pretend to be Lara. Romance, kissing, light hearted, minimal angst. David in a funny outfit. Fake dating trope?

☆ AMAZON PRIME

- Nativity 2: Danger in the Manger (Donald and Roderick Peterson)

Sequel to Nativity, but you don't need to watch the first one. Primary school teacher Donald Peterson (DT) is forced to take his class to Wales to participate in A Song For Christmas, a festive singing competition. Here he is put against his twin brother, who is a successful composer and with whom he has a strained relationship. Light angst - lots of daddy issues, but generally sweet.

☆ AMAZON, I think its on NOW TV???

- The Escape Artist (WILL BURTON)

A defence lawyer, Will Burton, gets a murderer off free, and very quickly grows to regret it, when his client comes after his family next. Lots of murder. Like three murders I think. Hot lawyer DT.

☆ AMAZON (I can't believe I forgot this one)

- What We Did On Our Holiday (DOUG MCLEOD)

A family go to Scotland for their grandfather's 70th birthday. Doug (DT) and his wife (Rosamund Pike) are getting a divorce, but are hiding it from the rest of the family. Movie is mostly focused on the kids and their grandad, but David has a few moments, and he's generally present throughout. Funny, slightly shocking at times, family film. No major angst. Character death.

☆ AMAZON PRIME

- Richard II (RICHARD II)

Shakespeare's Richard II. David plays the titular character, the extravagant, heartless and cold King of England, Richard II. We see his fall from grace as he is stripped of everything he owns and knows. Quite angsty. Long hair, androgynous David. Queer kiss scene (although they are cousins, soo...)

☆ you can find a link in a REDDIT comment if you search for it, AMAZON PRIME

- Broadchurch (ALEC HARDY)

An eleven-year-old boy is murdered in a small town, sending shock-waves through the community. Story follows both the family and communities response to the crime, as well as the investigation done by DI Alec Hardy (DT) and DS Ellie Miller (Olivia Coleman). Lots of angst from Alec. He is sick and hiding it. Injury, dizziness, panic attacks, that sort of thing - as well as a heart attack. He has a lot of trauma and daddy issues. Season three touches on topics of rape (warning).

- Mad To Be Normal (RD LIANG)

Biopic about RD Liang, a Scottish psychiatrist. Sex, misogyny, mental health topics, some self-harm (done by another character)

☆ AMAZON (sensing a pattern)

- Good Omens (CROWLEY)

An angel (Michael Sheen) and a demon work together to stop the end of the world. Queer romance (canon), some angst. Drama, comedy, LGBTQ+. David plays Crowley, the demon (who "sauntered vaguely downwards" rather than fell from heaven)

☆ AMAZON PRIME

- Staged (DAVID TENNANT)

A COVID lockdown comedy about David Tennant and Michael Sheen talking via Zoom during the lockdown. Actually quite sad at times? Mostly silly, though. Features Georgia Tennant and Anna Lundberg.

☆ BBC Iplayer (UK) (or VPN)

- Around The World in 80 Days (PHILEAS FOGG)

Phileas Fogg, a quiet and reserved man, decides to travel around the world in 80 days, after he receives an anonymous postcard calling him a coward. Cute found family, drama, angst (ex-lover stuff, internalised cowardice, illness, near death experience), some violence. There's a scene where Phileas gets flogged (whipped, essentially) quite violently, and it's somewhat graphic. Touches on themes of racism. Phileas is 100% neurodivergent.

☆ BBC Iplayer (UK) (or VPN)

- Inside Man (HARRY WATLING)

DT plays a vicar, Harry, who is involved in a murder after trying to protect his son - who was accused of having CP. Suicide themes, murder, self-harm - explores the idea that any person can murder, if they're pushed the right way. Includes topics to do with CP and pedophilia.

☆ NETFLIX, AMAZON

- Litvinenko (LITVINENKO)

Biopic about Alexander Litvinenko. A group of detectives investigate the poisoning of Litvinenko. David is bald in this show. (Scary)

☆ ITVX (UK) (or VPN)

- Doctor who (10TH AND 14TH DOCTORS)

Do I need to explain Doctor Who???? David Tennant plays the tenth and fourteenth regenerations of The Doctor, a Time Lord from outerspace. He travels around in the TARDIS with human companions.

☆ BBC Iplayer (UK)

I think I'm gonna leave it there, but there are a LOT that I have not touched on. This post is a very accurate and long list of everything on DT's filmography, so i recommend you check that out.

Other things I didn't mention (off the top of my head):

There She Goes, Bad Samaritan, Einstein and Eddington, Rab. C Nesbitt, Bright Young Things, LA Without a Map, Much Ado About Nothing, Duck Patrol, True Love, Gracepoint, Camping (US), Nan's Christmas Carol, Mary Queen of Scots, (You, Me and Him), Secret Smile, Deadwater Fell, Jessica Jones, Dramarama, Spies of Warsaw, AND A LOT MORE. (+ voice acting roles, and also his narrating work on Spy In The Wild (2017)

[slowlystupendousdelusion]

Okay so in an attempt to focus on the positives, here are some bullet points of what I remember from the Greg Doran & David Tennant Shakespeare talk the other week.

Touchstone was DT's first Shakespeare part and As You Like It was the Shakespeare play he first remembers being interested in as there was a tour of it that went to his school.

A licence was needed to be able to use André Tchaikowsky's skull for Hamlet as he had died within the last 100 years old. DT dropped it during dress rehearsal the first time they used it and a bit broke off. Luckily they were able to fix it as it was a cheek(?) bit that had fallen out and could be put back in.

DT did a fair impression of both Sir Ian McKellen and (I think?) Al Pacino (I think this was in reference to 'Looking for Richard'??)

DT felt a lot of pressure in relation to Hamlet to the point that he was curled up in the foetal position before going on and had to be talked out of it by the speech assistant

They hold 'gyms' during the rehearsal period where they go through the play line by line to make sure everyone understands what they're saying. They might have discussions about it if there's not consensus.

GD thinks Love's Labour's Won (the lost play) is Much Ado About Nothing. DT countered this (to much laughter) with the plot of DW S3 Ep2. There was clearly a large Whovian contingent in attendance.

I've mentioned this elsewhere but they talked about other productions of Macbeth and GD mentioned one he'd seen with the following joke in the Porter scene: "Knock knock" "Who's there?" "Tom" "Tom who?" "Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow" DT said he wouldn't tell Jatinder or he'd use it that evening

DT's least favourite Shakespeare is The Taming of the Shrew, I think GD demurred on this. Both said favourite is always the one you're currently working on. So Macbeth atm.

The talked about intervals and how Shakespeare didn't really have them - the crowd would be standing and some scenes were built in as a break. Some plays lose momentum if an interval is place in (Macbeth was cited). It can be a bit of a challenge choosing where to place one and they mentioned how in their Vers of Hamlet they put the interval mid-line to shake up expectations etc.

They talked a bit about iambic pentameter and how it's not as important as purists might have you believe. Shakespeare started having thoughts cross lines as he got older - perhaps to help the actors?

They talked about the challenges of such well-known plays and creating suspense etc. Some of the lines are problematic and how as a director, you're not an academic so if it doesn't work you can cut them!

DT mentioned Iago (among others) as a character he still wanted to play [🙏🙏🙏pls & ty]

One of the questions was about how his Shakespeare performances informed his part in Rivals. The response was that Jilly Cooper and Shakespeare actually have a lot in common in that they understand how humans act and wouldn't shy away from bawdiness etc.

They did mention Richard III a fair amount but the specifics aren't coming to mind

They talked about reviews and how you can dismiss the bad ones but if you do that then you can't really take only the good ones to heart. My friend noted that this topic was the only time GD looked slightly uncomfortable during the talk but I can't say I noticed that.

I didn't actually write notes at the time so I'm sure I missed a bunch, but my other take away from this was how charismatic and naturally funny DT came across.

[marvelmaniac715]

David Tennant has been involved in/can be linked to practically everything I study in English aside from the poetry and it is starting to scare me:

Okay, SO. For reference, I have studied the following in English Literature since the beginning of high school (I am now in college):

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Romeo and Juliet

Much Ado About Nothing

Of Mice and Men

Macbeth

Measure for Measure

Atonement

Hamlet

Here is how David Tennant connects to each one in a terrifying way:

A Midsummer Night's Dream - he once portrayed Puck (performed one monologue as the character) as part of a show about Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet - he played Romeo

Much Ado About Nothing - he played Benedick in a fantastic production that had Catherine Tate as Beatrice

Of Mice and Men - he was George in a BBC Radio 4 adaptation of the novel

Macbeth - he was the title role in a radio version of the play that was required listening for my class and he went on to play the role live on the West End just last year

Measure for Measure - I had to dig deep for this, but years ago he portrayed Angelo for just one scene as part of a six part documentary about the impact of Shakespeare that has now been lost to time, however I did find footage of his scene and pictures

Atonement - in the film adaptation of Atonement, Benedict Cumberbatch plays Paul Marshall, and he went on to cameo as Satan in Good Omens, which stars David Tennant as Crowley

Hamlet - he played Hamlet in both a filmed performance and live on stage, with the real skull of Tchaikovsky who donated it so he could be featured in Shakespearean productions after he died (just a fun piece of trivia), additionally, the skull was traditionally only used in rehearsals so as not to distract the audience with the presence of a real skull, but David Tennant insisted on using the skull in live performances

So there you have it - when I graduate college, I must personally track down David Tennant and shake his hand as thanks for his extensive involvement in my studies.

[burningvelvet]

nearly halfway thru shakespeare's plays and i've been mainly saving the histories for last but recently watched david tennant's richard ii and really recommend it for fans of him (as well as hamlet, but that's more well known). he decided to play him very queerly and androgynously, and he wears this amazing long hair with flowing fabrics. there are some good monologues from the queen and others about sorrow - i suggest anyone ctrl+f the word "sorrow" and read those bits if nothing else - & there are some surprisingly progressive speeches from the king himself.

for percy shelley fans like myself, i must say that i knew shelley was fond of reciting the words "let us sit upon the ground / and tell sad stories of the death of kings," to his friends, a reference that not everyone would really get but he loved too much to care. but it wasn't until tennant spoke those words -- and i didn't even know that line was from this play, but as soon as i heard them -- that i felt their power, the same power shelley must have felt if he ever saw it live, or the power he must have sensed when he read it. i got so excited when i recognized those words. then i realized why that became one of his favorite monologues ever. its such a fiery shelleyan monologue and tennant did it real justice - for me it was the highlight.

[denimbex1986]

'David Tennant bounds into the room, friendly, super articulate and energetic.

The actor and Doctor Who favourite, regularly voted the best Doctor by fans, is set to appear once again as the Time Lord in the forthcoming 60th anniversary specials.

The ongoing actors' strike prevents him from talking about those (Doctor Who is now a BBC/Disney co-production and US actors' union Sag-Aftra has been on strike since July).

But we're together, in a room full of books and leftover croissants - clearly actors need sustenance - to talk about Shakespeare, a playwright Tennant calls a "genius" who "had a particular sense of what it is to be a human" and expresses it "in a way no one else really does".

Tennant, who is an associate artist with the Royal Shakespeare Company, is steeped in the Bard. One critic described his Hamlet, which aired on the BBC in 2009, as "theatrical history in the making".

He excelled as Romeo and Richard II and, when we met, had just finished his first day of rehearsals for an already sold out run of Macbeth at London's Donmar Warehouse.

He's no-nonsense about the superstition of only referring to this most atmospheric work as the "Scottish play". Tennant freely uses the word "Macbeth".

But he admits to terrible nerves ahead of the show - however successful you are, it never gets any better, he says.

Renowned actors have been in his shoes; famously Lord Olivier was Macbeth to Vivien Leigh's Lady Macbeth in 1955, Sir Ian McKellen and Dame Judi Dench had their turn in 1976 and Sir Antony Sher and Dame Harriet Walter in 1999.

For Tennant, Shakespearean roles are like "Olympic events for an actor".

"The idea that you're being invited to stand next to these greats and sort of challenge yourself, test yourself against them and see if you've got something new to bring to that… that's part of what's exciting about it."

West Lothian-born Tennant "always wanted to be an actor" (his childhood obsession with Doctor Who had a big part to play in that) and from the way people talked about the plays, "I knew there was something magical about Shakespeare."

But that didn't mean he was immediately hooked when introduced to Macbeth at school - although he's at pains to praise his teacher.

He says the plays were written to be performed and it's "a shame that the first experience of Shakespeare is sitting in a classroom, trying to mouth these words that don't sit in your mouth and don't necessarily make a lot of sense to you at the age of 14".

"That's why a lot of people fall out of love with Shakespeare before they've really had a chance to fall in love."

Tennant fell in love when TAG, a Glasgow theatre company, brought As You Like It to his school's assembly hall. "I didn't necessarily understand every word and some of it felt perhaps a little unnatural and foreign to me". But the teenage Tennant was transported "because it was live and it was happening".

Now his head is brimful of a play that opens with three witches plotting and takes us on a journey of murder and guilt. Tennant says Shakespeare's take is "incredibly modern".

"The way he expresses Macbeth's fear of never sleeping, the torture of being in the restless ecstasy of never being able to close your eyes."

Even for Tennant, though, Shakespeare needs decoding. He tells me, when he opens one of the plays, he "100%" puts the modern translation next to the old. He deciphers the language so theatre audiences don't have to.

"If we're doing our job halfway properly, you shouldn't have to worry about understanding every syllable. You will be transported by it."

There can, though, be layers of meaning that still surprise you 10 weeks into a run, he says. "Usually on a wet Wednesday afternoon matinee, you'll suddenly go 'oh, that's what that line means.'"

Macbeth is one of 18 Shakespeare plays that would have disappeared if, seven years after his death, the actors John Heminges and Henry Condell hadn't published their friend's greatest plays in the First Folio.

That book was the first time the plays had been put together.

Before then, only 18 had been printed, in small paperback editions known as quartos.

The First Folio was registered for publication on 8 November 1623.

There were 750 copies made. Without it, we could have lost all the unprinted plays, around half of Shakespeare's works, including not just Macbeth but Julius Caesar, The Tempest, As You Like It and Twelfth Night.

Four hundred years on, 235 original First Folios are known to survive - 150 are in the US, and about 50 in the UK and Ireland.

The BBC is running a huge amount of content to mark the 400th anniversary. The celebratory season will include the 2018 adaptation of King Lear starring Sir Anthony Hopkins, Shakespeare Live! from the RSC, and a semi-fictionalised comic drama on Radio 4 about the creation of the First Folio.

Tennant says: "The reason that those plays are still performed around the world and the reason that Shakespeare is the cultural colossus that he is, is because that book was published."...

For Tennant, Shakespeare is "weirdly modern" because he captures how complicated it is to be human.

"He writes about the moment he was in, which seems to, by dint of his genius, also be the moment we are in."

Tennant is one of the UK's most exciting actors, known to wider audiences not just for Doctor Who and Broadchurch, but his film role as Barty Crouch Junior in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

But you get the sense that there's even more magic, for Tennant, in performing Shakespeare.

It's why he is celebrating the anniversary of the First Folio, that book that was the first step in creating a legacy for the greatest playwright in the English speaking world.'

[iwhoneverbelievedinwar]

watching hamlet with david tennant. my dad tried to get me to read the play once.

hamlet: to be or not to be

me: ayyy i know that one

hamlet: when we have shuffled off this mortal coil

me: ayyy malevolent reference

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Chris Hastings

Published: Jun 25, 2023

Is this a case of crazy wokery I see before me? Actors ridicule university trigger warnings over blood in Macbeth

Queen University Belfast has issued a warning to students studying Shakespeare

It stressed Macbeth 'could cause offence' due to its depictions of 'bloodshed'  

Similar warnings have been applied to the Twelfth Night and Titus Andronicus

It is Shakespeare's most violent play – a bloody saga packed with stabbing, strangling and poisoning that reaches a grisly climax with a beheading.

And for more than 400 years audiences have been enthralled – if a little disturbed – by the butchery of Macbeth.

But now one of the UK's top universities stands accused of 'infantilising' students after it warned them they might be 'offended' by the 'bloodshed' in the play.

Queen's University Belfast has issued the warning to undergraduates studying a module called Further Adventures in Shakespeare on its BA English course.

'You are advised that this play could cause offence as it references and / or deals with issues and depictions relating to bloodshed,' the warning, a copy of which has been obtained by this newspaper under Freedom of Information laws, states.

The university has also applied similar warnings to the Bard's Richard III, Twelfth Night and Titus Andronicus.

Some of Britain's biggest theatrical stars last night branded the warnings counterproductive and unnecessary. They point out that Macbeth, which was first performed in 1606, is particularly popular with schoolchildren.

Sir Ian McKellen, who starred opposite Dame Judi Dench in Sir Trevor Nunn's landmark 1976 RSC production, said warnings such as this could undermine the dramatic impact of the piece.

He said: 'My sister (a teacher) used to show Sir Trevor Nunn's TV version of the 1976 Macbeth to her teenage students.

'She'd pull down the blinds, start the video and then leave the classroom and count the minutes till she heard the first scream from within. Had the youngsters had trigger warnings in advance, the effect of the play would have been considerably diminished.'

He added: 'I remember talking to a priest who saw a number of performances of the stage production at the Stratford Other Place.

'He would hold out his crucifix throughout the performance, to protect the audience from the devilry conjured by the cast. I suppose these triggers are something similar.'

Call The Midwife star Jenny Agutter, who has acted in Shakespeare's The Tempest, King Lear and Love's Labour's Lost, said: 'I don't understand why anyone should feel warnings are necessary for Shakespeare's plays. Unless we need to be constantly warned that depicting human nature might cause offence.'

Sir Richard Eyre, the former Director of the National Theatre who has directed productions of Hamlet, Richard III and King Lear, said: 'It's completely fatuous and totalitarian to try to police people's minds with these absurd warnings. Ridiculous, contemptible, infantilising.

Presumably the people putting out the trigger warnings feel they are able to cope with the content of these plays, but weaker, younger, less intelligent people aren't.' Doctor Who star David Tennant and The Good Wife actress Cush Jumbo are due to star in a new production of Macbeth which opens in London in December. It is one of four major productions of the play set to open in the UK.

Queen's Belfast's trigger warning for Twelfth Night centres on what it calls the 'depictions relating to sexuality or gender. Warnings for Richard III and Titus Andronicus relate to depictions of disability in the former and 'race and or racism' in the latter. A spokesperson for Queen's University Belfast declined to comment.

==

'[A priest] would hold out his crucifix throughout the performance, to protect the audience from the devilry conjured by the cast. I suppose these triggers are something similar.'

Very apt. It's magical thinking. Especially considering they've not only been shown to not work, they've been shown to make things worse.

Also: Spoiler, much?

[rainbowpopeworld]

Here’s the whole article, for those who want it without the paywall:

Good Omens’ Michael Sheen and David Tennant — TV’s new odd couple

by Dan Einav MAY 31 2019

The words “apocalypse”, “Antichrist” and “demon” are not exactly synonymous with romance, but for Michael Sheen the new TV series Good Omens is largely defined by the “same material that underpins romantic comedies”. The actor is alluding to the fact that the six-part adaptation of Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s beloved Armageddon-set novel revolves around the unlikely relationship between his character, Aziraphale, an effete and eccentric angel, and the Satanic nogoodnik Crowley, played by David Tennant, as they conspire to prevent an end-of-days battle between Heaven and Hell.

I meet Sheen and Tennant in a fittingly infernally overheated room in a London hotel. For Sheen, the two supernatural beings they play are “the ultimate odd couple”, who have sustained a friendship over six millennia despite everything indicating that they should be mortal (or rather immortal) enemies. Not only because they embody the dichotomy between good and evil, but because they are essentially cosmic versions of the bickering, codependent pair played by Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau in the film Sheen references.

Aziraphale is the prim and proper one, modelling himself on an 18th-century dandy, while Crowley is impish and louche, more like a faded rock star than a disseminator of iniquity. They are unapologetically hammy roles — unlike the meatier ones in which the two actors have excelled in the likes of Frost/Nixon, The Damned United (Sheen), Broadchurch (Tennant) and Hamlet (both) — that could have felt contrived if it weren’t for the lively on-screen rapport the two have cultivated.

Their compatibility as a comedy double act is especially impressive considering that they had never shared a scene or stage before. When I ask how they set about creating a chemistry that we’re to believe has developed over 6,000 years, both are quick to deflect attention from their efforts, conferring praise instead on Gaiman, who wrote the scripts for all six episodes. “The chemistry is on the page. Those characters feel alive when you read them”, Tennant says, “[the rest] is being responsive to the person you’re playing with.”

This receptiveness is clear when we meet. Sounds of approval from one punctuate answers given by the other, and appreciative laughter meets every quip. Occasionally they bypass me altogether, directing their responses to each other. They’re terrific actors, so you never know, but this closeness feels entirely genuine.

Seeing this friendship in action I wonder whether they’d had a notably enjoyable shoot, one that made it difficult to heed the advice a young Sheen was once given by the venerable actor and director Fiona Shaw, to be careful not to enjoy himself too much.

“He’s not taken Fiona’s advice!” Tennant chuckles gleefully, but Sheen insists that he does indeed follow Shaw’s gentle admonition to this day. “Here’s the trick: you want people to think you’re having a good time, and we were, but the worst thing is seeing people enjoying themselves too much in the wrong way. It’s our job to make it look like there’s a sense of playfulness and life. What Fiona was getting at is ‘don’t enjoy your [own performance] too much’, don’t let it become indulgent.”

Tennant agrees. For him, it’s lighter roles in particular that demand a considered deftness, even if the characters are as cartoonish as they are in Good Omens. “Trying to make a soufflé can be harder than making sourdough!” he says, visibly pleased with his analogy, before continuing. “The death of comedy is when you start being terribly aware of funny lines. You just have to key into it and keep it real. The minute I try just to be funny is the death of it”.

But Sheen dismisses such self-effacement: “[David] has an innate sense of comic timing,” he assures me. Anyone who saw Tennant’s Hamlet for the RSC in 2008 will already know how skilled he is at disarming audiences by injecting unexpected humour into moments of gravity. “That’s the human experience isn’t it?” says Tennant. “We’re always trying to find the light in everything we can, because otherwise the monotony will take over”.

Despite sending up weighty themes such as religion and morality, Good Omens is at its sharpest when it focuses on the supernatural beings as they immerse themselves — even revel in — the relative banality of human life. They team up to save the world from destruction because they’ve grown fond of all its small delights: gravlax and Glyndebourne for Aziraphale; fast cars and the Velvet Underground for Crowley — far more appetising than anything transcendental. In fact, they are so attached to each other because they don’t quite belong on earth or with their peers in Heaven and Hell.

I put it to Sheen and Tennant that the celestial could be compared to celebrity, and I wonder whether they too have felt alienated by their status. “They’re in between worlds and have gone a bit rogue. I’ve definitely felt that for many years when I lived in America as my daughter was growing up, but I never felt quite at home there,” Sheen reveals. “I’d then go back to my hometown in Wales, but I’d never feel like I’m quite of anywhere. It’s hard to describe certain experiences that you have as an actor”. Tennant adds: “As an actor you can get cosseted and treated in a way that deludes you. You have to ensure the insanity doesn’t get you. I do cherish normality.”

The flipside is that stars are usually personally held accountable when a series fails to meet the expectations of the fans — and lovers of fantasy and sci-fi are often notoriously implacable. To say that a screen adaptation of Good Omens has been hotly anticipated is to understate the extent of the fervour Gaiman’s devotees have for his work.

Do the actors feel anxious about a potential backlash? “I read the book when it first came out, so I’m one of those fans and I’ve felt that weight of expectation,” says Sheen. “But Neil has said all the way through that he’s not making it for the fans, he’s making it for Terry [Pratchett, who died in 2015].”

Tennant, who is no stranger to opinionated fans from his days as Doctor Who, is a little more blunt. “You can’t make TV which pleases what people’s preconceived notions might be. You just have to make something you feel proud of and works for people who haven’t read the book”. Such viewers may find the show a little too winkingly arch and idiosyncratic at times; after all, it revolves around the hunt for the harbinger of Doomsday — an 11-year-old boy who’s mistakenly grown up in a sleepy Oxfordshire village, following a clerical error by an order of Satanic nuns.

But it’s this most absurd of plot devices that Sheen perhaps has in mind when we wrap up by talking about whether the show’s apocalyptic setting may resonate with our volatile world. “The major risk is not some demagogue waging war, it’s people not doing the basics. It’s the everyday mundane stuff that will get us in the end.” That’s a pretty sobering takeaway from what is at heart just a romcom.

This interview that goes back to the premiere of season 1 just details how even reporters feel the chemistry of Michael and David in the room.

This receptiveness is clear when we meet. Sounds of approval from one punctuate answers given by the other, and appreciative laughter meets every quip. Occasionally they bypass me altogether, directing their responses to each other. They re terrific actors, so you never know, but this closeness feels entirely genuine.

[stellaruboo]

Crowley needs a little bit more than the apology dance..

A scenario where Aziraphel comes back and Crowley wish for an additional (hand) kiss.

I found this photo (David Tennant playing Hamlet on stage) while searching for references and i liked the pose so much i want to draw it. And because i am obsessed with GO it should be him as Crowley.

The story idea came very spontaneously, also the background was not intentional. Nothing special or much but i think that could be a thing

[mathclasswarfare]

10, 12, 18, go! :D (for the writing meme)

Thank you, Err for the asks!

No. 10: Do you enjoy writing dialogue, exposition, or plot the most?

Dialogue! Not even a contest. I love it.

No. 12: Is there a trope you haven’t written yet but really want to?

Are band AUs a trope? I have one sort of outlined.

No. 18: What is a line/scene you’re really proud of? Give us the DVD commentary for that scene.

I'm proud of the fakespeare I wrote for this fic from the Promptis exchange (which YOU made me gorgeous art for btw). I was really into the prompt, and knew I wanted to make up the play that they'd perform in the fic. I ❤️ Hamlet, but I hadn't read it since high school and didn't have a copy at home, so I grabbed a copy of the Oxford Shakespeare version. It has really great notes that provide a lot of cultural and historical context to help understand the text, so it was a fun read. I also watched some arty pandemic performance of Romeo and Juliet because I couldn't find the David Tennant Hamlet anywhere to watch (I still want to watch that btw). While my head was all filled with Shakespeare, I came up with the rough concept for the play and wrote the one scene that I was going to feature in the fic. The main characters--Villaticus and Tempus--are basically just latin synonyms of Hamlet and Horatio. I tried to incorporate the same kinds of wordplay and puns, and religious references that we find in Shakespeare, as well as the all-important homoerotic subtext. Anyway, I had a lot of fun writing that scene, and I think it turned out pretty good!

[madeline-kahn]

hi robin, it’s your psc anon! i notice you like shakespeare, so i’m curious to know what your favorite work of his is. i feel like nowadays it’s become sort of cool to think shakespeare is too “old timey” or he’s not that great but tbh i feel like the content of his stuff really is timeless, it’s just the language and references that are dated - i’m interested in your thoughts too!

Hi!!! Omg yes I'm super into Shakespeare! I totally agree that he's super timeless! Just look at how many great modern set movies are partly or entirely adaptations. The language itself can be so intimidating and that really scares people off but the annotated versions or SparkNotes can help so much. Not to mention they weren't meant to be read like books anyway, they were meant to be performed so I don't even really think people should feel they need to read the plays unless they're interested in doing so. You're so much better off finding a good adaptation or production and just supplementing yourself with a synopsis.

My favorite work is definitely Hamlet. I love the speeches, I love the themes and the conflict I love so many of the performances I've seen. If I had the nerve to get a big tattoo (or any tattoo for that matter) I'd want something Hamlet themed. If you're in need of a good Hamlet production I highly recommend the Globe Theatre version with Michelle Tierry as Hamlet... really good direction I love the gender swaps in the casting and the performances are awesome. David Tennant's is great too it was actually the first Hamlet I watched!

I also really like A Midsummer Night's Dream, Much Ado About Nothing, As You Like It, The Tempest, Twelfth Night, M*cbeth, Julius Caesar and King Lear. I could go on about my favorite productions for ages but I'll just be brief and say that if you only watch one (and you can find it.. I know I saw it on youtube but that was limited availability I think) watch the National Theatre Live version of A Midsummer Night's Dream it is so much fun.

[davidbowieslesbian]

kinda out of context but i once saw someone saying that when they were watching Hamlet, when the actor asked "and what does your friend think?" to aziraphale referring to crowley, crowley felt the luxury in his words and proceeded to laugh it off when aziraphale said "oh no he's not my friend bla bla bla" because (now that's in part my opinion) with zira saying they weren't together by any means could lead the actor to try on and still ""flirt"" with crowley

aLSO crowley says after laughing (such a pretty smile btw. david tennant, i hate you) "i think you should get on with the play" politely setting up boundaries SUCH A KINGGGGGGGGG

[ part I ]

[brunettebelladonna]

“Ophelia is a weak character” Discuss (Essay)

Hi all, quick forewarning, I don’t completely agree with the points I made, but due to the exam requirements this is what I wrote. (This got 15/15 when graded)

The adjective ‘weak’ refers to that which is fragile or liable to break, as well as something that has the absence of strength or influence. In this essay I am going to evince the notion that Ophelia is a weak character within ‘Hamlet’ by exploring the overarching nature of the character; the environment she is subject to and how it impacts her as an individual, looking at both her development as weak, as well as her being weak as a whole.

Ophelia is undoubtedly presented as a fragile and effeminate individual, with a robust reliance on the powerful men that surround her- the critic Lee Edwards reaffirms this concept stating “we can imagine Hamlet’s story without Ophelia, but Ophelia literally has no story without Hamlet”- Ophelia is a one-dimensional cliché when observed through her influence within the play; she lacks the same level of depth that the other characters have. Ophelia’s shallow character depth and otherwise lack of development is evident through her lack of lines in comparison to other characters; even when she does speak her lines are relatively shorter- suggesting a lack of status and otherwise strength or influence over other individuals. This lack of verbal development steals the potential to learn more about Ophelia’s character; throughout the play, critics view her to be “of all the pivotal characters in Hamlet, Ophelia is the most static and one-dimensional”- Amanda Mabillard perfectly encapsulates Ophelia, she is simply a “static” character that is deficient in any personal drive; when she does have any emotional desires, like her love for Hamlet, it’s easily over-ruled by those of higher status within the play- she has such a weak will that her desires are easily uprooted. Ophelia is once again implied to be weak through Hamlet’s passive comment “where’s your father?”, this suggests that Polonius’ influence has so deeply and potently corrupted Ophelia, that she’s seen as not an individual, but as so weak that she only exists in conjunction to others.

Throughout the play we observe Ophelia’s dependency on her father; her submissive stance when given orders by him, or her brother Laertes accentuates her weakness as an individual, obediently responding to Polonius (her father), saying “I shall obey my lord”, her near-immediate willingness to comply strips her of any potential power; this once again aids in her depiction as a fragile, docile and weak woman. This dependency doesn’t stop with the male figures within her family, it extends to her emotionally detached lover, Hamlet. Whenever Hamlet and Ophelia are together, their interactions create a pungent uneasiness and demeaning atmosphere targeted towards Ophelia, with her acting as a sexualized prop, which Hamlet toys with. Hamlet makes sexual innuendos when in public with Ophelia, saying it will “cost you a groaning to take off mine edge” and “shall I lie in your lap… do you think I meant country matters?”, Ophelia is helpless to object due to their drastic difference in political and societal status especially due to their gender, however in some interpretations, this is a more playful interaction, yet most, including the David Tennant version of Hamlet, depict this as a sick sexual game with Ophelia being an unwitting victim. Elaine Showalter believes “… Ophelia has been an insignificant minor character in the play, touching in her weakness and madness but chiefly interesting of course, in what she tells us about Hamlet”- Ophelia is used as a prop in both the societal sense within the play, but also as a literary device- her entire character is used to develop others- primarily Hamlet. She aids in depicting Hamlet’s volatile and narcissistic personality through how he treats his supposed lover. Ophelia is an unwitting victim to the patriarchal society of Hamlet’s Denmark; all other female characters serve very binary uses, to further the plot; in comparison, to Gertrude, she is by far weaker, as Gertrude’s only power originates from her status of Queen; even then she is victim to Hamlet and in turn is also weak, emphasizing Ophelia’s weakness all together as she lacks political power.

Critic David Leverenz suggests “…There are many voices in Ophelia’s mind speaking through her… none of them her own. She becomes the mirror…”- Ophelia is powerless to the overbearing actions of everyone in the play, she’s held to a high standard by Polonius and is easily manipulated by others, constantly being pulled in different directions to please, the King, Polonius, and Hamlet, she struggles to achieve what each demand of her. Ophelia is trapped in a constant struggle to please everyone; reflects the declining atmosphere of the state, suffering from the actions of Hamlet and the persistent harassment of her father, she’s helpless to escape this as she has no place to disobey. None of the pivotal decisions she makes in the play are her own, she’s always pushed by an external force. Ophelia is further presented as weak for having “sucked the honey of his musicked vows”, she’s been steadfastly manipulated by both Hamlet and Polonius that she doubts all love yet recognizes that she has been led on, proving that she’s not fully helpless, yet despite this faint potential, her questioning of Hamlet’s love stems from Polonius- suggesting Ophelia is still the “green girl” she was earlier in the play; that she’s still weak to their puppeteering. While she speaks for everyone, in a rather broken manner, everyone also speaks for her.

Although Ophelia is primarily presented throughout the play as a weak, defenseless, and consistently manipulated woman, she holds strength in mild acts of defiance. Despite these disobedient acts only occurring in passing, meaning they hold no real influence on the strength of her character, they still enable her to be seen as not being completely weak; they offer a degree of much-needed character development. In act 1 scene 3, Ophelia’s sarcastic rebuttal to Laertes hypocritical stance “do not as some ungracious pastors do…”, shows Ophelia with some degree of power, while this may appear to be a meaningless or mundane piece of banter when observing the oppressive and seemingly patriarchal views of Denmark, words are Ophelia’s only way to hold any sense of power. Some feminist critics feel that Ophelia is an icon to be followed; they take into account the social climate depicted within the play, viewing Ophelia’s otherwise minor acts of defiance as a true display that she isn’t as weak as the audience initially perceived her to be. Even though Ophelia commits suicide; this is viewed as weakness generally, this is Ophelia’s act of personal decision, her one true act for herself.

In conclusion, Ophelia is weak, not by her own accord, but as a victim of her circumstance. Ophelia has the weight of every other character looming over her; her weakness lies in their manipulation of her emotions and her inability to disobey due to the restrictive confines based on her status as a woman. Ophelia has a desire to please others, even if it means forfeiting her feelings, Polonius’ domineering authority caused her to look to others in power for how she should live. Ophelia’s weak due to her persistent manipulation and treatment as a toy, it’s also due to her lack of character development, with a diminutive number of lines. Ophelia holds a minute amount of power only in the ending of her life by her life decision or her choices to fight for what she believed in, if only for a short period. Ophelia is, however, the weakest character in ‘Hamlet’ due to these reasons.  

[bettsfic]

Hi Betts, hoping for your guidance if you have the time. No pressure really. But my course will be focusing quite a bit on Shakespeare for the rest of this year. Do you have any advice for someone who isn’t really a writer on how to understand Shakespeare better? Have you read much of it? How did you tackle understanding the language? Is it just reading a lot more of it and looking up words? I struggle getting through one play, but is it just pushing through it? Resources you found helpful?

i feel like i’ve been waiting my whole life for this question. 

i’m feral for shakespeare. i have a hamlet tattoo. i have an unfortunate number of monologues memorized on the off-chance someone at some point goes “hey does anyone know any good monologues?” and i can be all “TO BE OR FUCKING NOT TO BE, BITCHES” or “ONCE MORE UNTO THE BREACH DEAR FRIENDS, ONCE FUCKING MORE.” i have an actual literal lecture on how richard ii is a greedy glamazon bitch, and an outline for an article on how lady macbeth can teach us everything we need to know about sympathy in fiction.

like many people, high school made me despise shakespeare. i can’t tell if it was the simple coercion of being forced to read things, period, or that we were made to treat everything so seriously, and expected to understand the use of language as if it were like anything else we were reading. 

then when i was 23ish, i got obsessed with doctor who, which led me to david tennant’s filmography, and david tennant happens to have done really a lot of shakespeare. when i geared up to watch his hamlet, however, i thought, i want to read this first, so i can see how different it is from my perception of it.

cue me surreptitiously scrolling through the wikisource version of hamlet while pretending to listen to conference calls at work. i think that helped, making it something i wasn’t allowed to do. it made reading feel like an indulgence. 

free of the constraints of “i’m going to have to write a five-paragraph essay about this when i’m done,” i began to read very casually, only trying to understand what was going on and not trying to find any profound meaning in it. 

in doing that, i realized i was actually doing it correctly. these are plays, meant to be performed on a stage, to entertain, immerse, and evoke feeling. you’re supposed to be sad at the end of tragedies and happy at the end of comedies. however, reading the plays is a far different experience than watching them, and in many ways more of a challenge.

you can’t read a play, especially a shakespeare play, like a book. prose and poetry both lend themselves to crafting intentional images. the entire thing exists to be and only be read. but plays and scripts are just one piece of a much larger puzzle, involving directors and actors and costume designers and set designers. bringing a play to life is a team effort. when you’re reading, you’re only seeing the skeleton of the story. it’s like reading a guidebook for a vacation destination. you can get the gist of it but only truly know a place by going there.

you can’t read shakespeare as a reader. you have to read as a director. you have to envision each actor, and after every line, decide where they are standing on stage, how they deliver their line, and what happens between each line. shakespeare gives almost no stage direction, so you have a lot of creative license in interpretation.

another thing to remember is that shakespeare is first and foremost a rhetorician. he wanted his words to be memorable and beautiful, to persuade and delight. if he wanted to be understood simply, he would have written simply. but instead, he uses 17 lines where 1 would have sufficed. it’s helpful, after every line, to consciously ask yourself, “what has just been said?” and very often the answer is simple. a yes or a no, i agree or disagree, or even sometimes banal statements.

consider hamlet’s “to be or not to be.” he goes on and on and on, but he’s really just being the “guess i’ll just die” meme. in the comedies, shakespeare often uses this effect as a joke. one character will go on and on, and another character gives a simple and curt and blunt reply, and depending on the delivery, it’s hilarious. 

you’re not supposed to love hamlet, or richard ii, or macbeth, or any other character. the tragedies are train wrecks that make you go “i get why you’re doing this but you need to Stop.” the comedies are similar, in that the characters sometimes make you go “you are being so fucking stupid.” it’s the sense of irony, the “i know what’s right in this situation but you don’t” that creates a huge amount of engagement. we’re always bracing ourselves for what comes next.

so here’s how i recommend reading shakespeare:

pick a play, and pick a version or two to watch afterward. here’s a really great list of productions. personally, i’d stick to ones where you’re familiar with the actors, which heightens the engagement. 

before you start reading, consciously cast each character, using actors you really like. or, instead of actors, you can cast your favorite characters as if they were in an AU version of your current fandom. reading shakespeare as fanfic is a speedy way of ensuring your emotional investment.

pull up the wikipedia plot summary of the play to have on hand while you read. every few pages or so, line your reading up with the summary to make sure you’ve caught onto what’s been happening.

as you read, direct the actors you’ve chosen. how do they deliver the line? sometimes this takes a few tries. you can’t let your eyes move left to right across the page and just expect to miraculously understand it as if it were prose. you have to puzzle it out.

if you’re really stuck on something, pull up the spark notes version. there’s no shame in that. if you compare with spark notes enough, you begin to get a sense of the language and begin to need it less and less.

when you’re done, order a pizza, pour a glass of wine, and watch your chosen production version. delight in already understanding what’s happening, figure out where you might have been wrong or confused, and revel in the places you were right. 

watch another production and see how your version, the last version, and this version all differ. 

if you get all the way to this point and you’re not utterly in love, i don’t know what to tell you. i think i watched wyndham theater’s much ado over a hundred times. rsc’s hamlet probably just as much. i have yet to watch or read a single play i didn’t at least appreciate. i’m one of the few people who even enjoys titus andronicus. 

shakespeare takes a lot of energy, but it’s worth it. once you get a feel for the strings he pulls and how he pulls them, it’s like opening a door to a whole other world. you see clips of phrases from this play or that, understand subtle references, and see how his influence exists in nearly everything. you can use his characters and plots and dynamics in all your own work. you can reach backward to see his own influences in greek plays, and forward to see his influences throughout all of literature. it’s amazing, not just who he was, but how his plays are still both so beautiful and so human. 

i’ve skipped over rhetoric, craft, the sonnets, and a few other things that i really enjoy about shakespeare, but those are probably topics for another time. if you’re looking for somewhere to start, i highly recommend much ado about nothing, particularly the wyndham 2009 production with david tennant and catherine tate which is genuinely one of the funniest things i’ve ever watched. it’s fun to compare it to the 1994 kenneth branaugh film and then rage against whedon’s 2013 travesty. 

best of luck in your shakespearean pursuit!

[thebluestockingfirefly]

Shakespeare!

Trivia about me related to Shakespeare! 

My favourites:

Play: Much Ado About Nothing

Character: Beatrice, though I have to love the Paulina/Hermione alliance/commitment in WT

Leading lady: Lady Macbeth, because my god does that woman have character. 

Tragedy: probably Titus, because it's so gleefully violent, stemming as it does out of the revenge tragedy genre popular early in Shakespeare's career

History: I've only read Richard II once but it's stuck in my head, so I guess that?

Romance: eh, Tempest? I like Winter's Tale for the Paulina/Hermione squad, but the Perdita stuff is a bit tedious. Leonates does have excellent villain face for a non-tragedy, and the metaphor about the spider in the cup is one of my favourites. Plus it's hard to compete with 'Exit, pursued by a bear', just as a general fact of life.

(Film) adaptation: I like the verve of Luhrman's R&J, and he does some really clever work in his updating to the MTV era, but the chemistry between R and J in Zeffirelli's adaptation is wonderful. I like Branagh's Much Ado, but it gets a bit caught up in itself at times (that cast, though!)

(Film, non-’straight’) adaptation: Oh, who doesn’t love Lion King? 10 Things I Hate About You is also a classic, and I have a guilty pleasure with She’s the Man. 

(Stage) adaptation: David Tennant and Catherine Tate in Much Ado. Bloody glorious. They're both brilliant at comic timing, plus they have fantastic chemistry, and that production had some truly spectacular blocking. It's also the first time I've seen a realistic way Claudio might mistake Margaret for Hero.

TV shoutouts: Doctor Who’s “The Shakespeare Code” is kind of hilarious for all of the LOOK SHAKESPEARE they chucked in, plus Shax’s ‘mmm yes Doctor’ + the Doctor’s “57 academics just punched the air in delight” - not least because only 57?? Really? Meanwhile Warehouse 13′s “The New Guy” drives me batty because the “Shakespeare’s last folio” artifact that’s romping around killing people a la Shakepsearean deaths bloody well HAS ILLUSTRATIONS, which - no, no, and a hearty NO. And Mika should have known it. Bah. 

Reference: This is impossible. I literally can’t go a day without going ‘welp, there’s a Shakespeare reference’. (This definitely does not drive the people I love batty. Nope. Not at all.)

I have:

Attained two degrees in Shakespeare (MLitt, PhD)

Completed three dissertations (on Titus Andronicus and audience expectations of justice; poster art for RSC productions of Taming of the Shrew; and adaptations of Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet on YouTube and Vimeo)

Three copies of the Complete Works on my bookshelf (Arden, Riverside, and a clothbound version that belonged to my grandmother), which is one fewer than I used to own

Seen Romeo and Juliet, Merchant of Venice (with Patrick Stewart!!), Macbeth, King Lear, Henry V, Much Ado About Nothing, Taming of the Shrew, Winter's Tale, Twelfth Night, and half of Cymbeline live on stage (plus a short-lived R&J musical in the West End)

Seen more adaptations on film than I can count (ranging from 'straight' adaptions, e.g. Branagh's Hamlet, to based-on, e.g. The Lion King), plus read a whole bunch of adaptations from seventeenth- and eighteenth-century theatre

Been in one play (Midsummer), unless you count the shadow puppet production from middle school (in which case, also R&J)

Read all of the tragedies, nearly all of the comedies (dammit, All's Well), and about half of the histories

A strong belief that Shakespeare is for everyone, and that an 8-year-old in her bedroom can adapt Shakespeare as powerfully as a director on film or theatre with decades of experience

No doubt that Shakespeare is as relevant now as at any time over the last 400-some years

Accepted that I will always be the slightly weird friend who whips out Shakespeare at the slightest provocation

Unfortunate knowledge that Rule 34 exists for Shakespeare too

Little interest in questions of authorship

At least two Shakespeare-related pieces of art on my walls

An undisguised delight every time Shakespearean actor Sir Patrick Stewart as Captain Picard breaks out the Shakespeare (”The Defector”, with Data playing the disguised Henry V amongst his troops, is especially delightful, while Picard awkwardly wooing Lwaxana Troi to get her back from the Ferengi in “Menage a Troi” is giggle-worthy; the Midsummer rehearsal back in San Fran in “Time’s Arrow” is also pretty wonderful)

Bonus fact: did you know Shakespeare invented the name Jessica? 

Anywho. Happy birth/deathday, Shax.