Trying to make a list of Henriads adaptations (multi-media)
I added a link to everything on YouTube, and where you can stream those available for streaming. If nothing is written by a production, it means that I couldn't find where to stream it, but you can find it on the high seas. If I've written that I can't find it, it means I couldn't find it legally or illegally, and would love help to find it:)
professional filmed productions:
KJ
Stratford Festival 2015 (Digital Theater)
RSC 2019 (Marquee TV)
R2:
ESC 1990 (here)
Globe 2003
National Theatre 2019
Globe 2019
Globe 2015 (Globe Player)
RSC 2013 (Marquee TV)
Stratford Festival 2023 (here)
H4:
ESC 1990 (here) - two parts
Globe 2010 (Globe Player) - two parts
RSC (Marquee TV, Digital Theater) - two parts
Phyllida Lloyd's Donmar Warehouse trilogy (Digital Theater)- one part
H5
ESC 1990 (here)
Globe 2012 (Globe Player)
RSC 2015 (Marquee TV, Digital Theater)
National Theater 2022 (Marquee TV)
H6
ESC 1990 (here & here) - two parts
2013 Globe (used to be available, can’t find it )
RSC (2021-2022) (Marquee TV, Digital Theater)- three parts, part 1 is Open Rehearsal Project
R3
ESC 1990 (here)
Almedia Theatre 2016 (Amazon)
Sydney Opera House 2017 (can't find)
RSC 2022 (Marquee TV, Digital Theater)
Stratford Festival 2022 (stratfest@home)
NY Shakespeare Festival 2022 (maybe on PBS?)
The woke tragedy of Richard III, Dyke of Gloucester 2026 (here ) (abridged)
TV
An Age of Kings (1960) (here) R2-H5
The Wars of the Roses (1963) (here) H6-R3 - three parts over all
BBC Television Shakespeare (1978-1985) R2-R3 + KJ (archive.org)
Performance - 5.4 H4 (1995), 6.3 R2 (1997)
The Hollow Crown (2012) R2-R3, H6 in two parts
Movies
R2
The Life and Death of King Richard II (1960) (is it available anywhere?)
Richard II (1971) (here)
Richard the Second (2001) (is it available anywhere?)
Richard II (1982)
H5
Henry V, Laurence Olivier (1944) (here)
Henry V, Kenneth Branagh (1989) (for US friends - it's available on Tubi for free:)
R3
Richard III (1912) silent film (here) - just cool it exists
Richard III, Laurence Olivier (1955) (here)
Richard III (1995)
Audio
R2
BBC (1960) (here)
BBC Radio Shakespeare (2005)
Shakespeare sessions (2017)
Oregon Shakespeare Festival (2017)
H4
BBC Radio Shakespeare (2004)
Shakespeare sessions (2020)
H5
Henry at Agincourt (1956)
Naxos AudioBooks (here)
Ian McKellen (2011) (here)
H6
L.A. Works Theater (2008)
R3
Naxos AudioBooks (here)
Audio Production From Folger Theatre (2015)
Multi
BBC Drama on 3 - R2-H5 + R3
Arkangel Shakespeare
Argo Classics Shakespeare: The Complete Collection
Loose Adaptations
Chimes at Midnight (1966) - movie (here) R2-H5
Falstaff: A Novel, Robert Nye (1976) - book - H4
My Own Private Idaho (1991) - movie - H4
King Rikki (2002) - movie - R3
Richard III (2007) - movie - R3
The King (2019) - movie R2-H5
Lady Hotspur, Tessa Gratton (2021) - book - 1H4
The Prince (2022) - recorded play - 1H4
Henry Henry, Allen Bratton (2024) - book - H4
Related
Shakespeare Uncovered (2012) -TV- 1.3 ∙ 'Richard II' with Derek Jacobi (cw authorship conspiracy), 1.5 ∙ Henry IV Parts 1 and 2, Henry V with Jeremy Irons
Looking for Richard (1996) - movie
The Lost King (2022) - movie
Would love some help to complete the list:) I want to add audio versions too
Not very historical, but I would really love to see a production leaning into Julius Caesar being a father figure to Anthony, Octavian, and Brutus. Like omg can you imagine actors really playing the three of them as brothers? That's some R2 levels shit right there.
i love it when richard ii productions make bolingbroke friends with the rebel lords <3 the hollow crown having the three of them go out to meet him at that crossroad & northumberland bringing him his horse... the 2015 globe theatre having northumberland carry bolingbroke's bags for him & the others running up to hug him... it's so fun but also highlights bolingbroke's genuine connection to others compared to richard's isolation, and how he loses all that by the end of the play and in 1h4.
Here's some of the notes, starting with the things multiple people brought up:
SHRIMP COCKTAIL:
banahbanah: #flashback to that one fic where Peter Parker frets about drinking shrimp cocktail because of the alcohol
generaldeliciousness: adding: what a prawn/shrimp cocktail is
#why is your character turning it down because they're under 21 #do you think prawn cocktail is a cocktail #this lives in my brain rent-free constantly #the rest of the fic was so normal #and good enough that i'll still re-read it #but bro
And then many, MANY, people wondering if this was actually authour mistake, since Peter really would do this!
POMEGRANATES:
zhajhassa: #haha where's that post that was like someone describing someone eating a pomegranate but they ate it like an apple
thornhands: #once someone wrote persephone biting into a whole Pomegranate #had to stop and stare at a wall for a minute
sungsingsanguine: I once saw someone very confidently write about a character eating slices of pomegranate.
FRUIT TREES:
zagreuses-toast: #given a very endearing glimpse into a writers blindspots by seeing them describe someone sitting under a ''pineapple tree''
salatrash: I remember something about picking watermelons... OF A FUCKING TREE
baander: #cranberry trees
DOUGH/BATTER:
maycelium: #I'm a chef so I'm really used to people not accurately describing how to cook food #But I was surprisingly flabbergasted when someone was writing making a cake and was kneading it. Which uh #Not necessary for cake. It was interesting for sure but just bizarre
livebloggingmydescentintomadness: #the one that drove me nuts was when a character set aside a batch of PASTA DOUGH 'to rise' #pasta doesn't have yeast!! #it does need to REST but it will never RISE #you do not want an airy crumb on your noodles
lovesodeepandwideandwell: #THE ONE WHERE THEY MADE COOKIES BY LADLING BATTER INTO A TRAY
Some other topics:
ANIMALS:
catenarwhal: #mandatory 'how cows produce milk' mention#i'll never recover from that one I fear
piromantic: #one time i saw someone fake their way through describing how spiders behave
pluto-lichen: horses
misskittypotter: #stardew valley faking its way through what fresh fish smell like
pa-pa-plasma: #saw someone faking their way through knowing what a seal is once #i still am fucked up over that one to this day. they just straight up did not know #& they were NOT good at guessing it either like it was clear they had never googled that animal ever #& was only just now realizing via answering questions from anons that seals are not!! what they assumed. initially
SEX:
dykevandyke: #what a prostate is #and where it is located #as in. external.
dreamyeyedrose: #I remember back in the ff.net days reading an Ichigo/Renji fic where the writer assumed the penises go inside each other #and I was like “I mean I don't know how it works for sure I don't have one but idk if that's how it works”
SOME OTHER FOOD STUFF:
thetrekkiehasthephonebox: #add another one to the list bloggers#this character is cooking a salad
shosta: #still baffled about the published work that didn't know food could freeze
sun-dari: #once i read a fic where the author didn't understand cinnamon
alto-tenure: #read something recently where the author was just. blatantly wrong about spices
dramatic-dolphin: #i saw someone try to fake their way through what ramen is once. like 14 years ago.#but i remember.#i was very confused about ramen for a few months. they were writing it so authoritatively.
the-celery-stalks-at-midnight: #i will never ever forget someone putting leftover fries in the microwave to reheat them and setting the timer for five minutes
typeghost: #this sparked a memory of a hannibal fic where the author had to fake their way through writing about gravy
draculin: #the one fanfic where the author knows about coffee only as a concept wrote a character as a coffee drinker#was very interesting#I don't remember the fandom or the plot but I was mesmerized by the coffee actions and choices
11235811235811: #there's a lot of faking their way thru congee in the svsss fandom i'll also note
fishali3n: #read one where the person clearly didnt know what tofu is
emmy-everafter: #in the aftermath of shadow and bone s2 i saw a lot of people pretending to know what stroopwafels are #babes they are more like cookies than breakfast waffles #like yes there is a waffle pattern but you're not gonna cut into a stack of them with syrup and sugar#🤣🤣🤣
NON-FOOD STUFF:
red-umbrella-811: Shoutout to Dame Agatha Christie for faking her way through what a wrench is in a very popular published work.
bluebeetle: #once saw someone have a character put an entire phone book in their pocket
nonametis: #- sex talk in languages other than english #<- or just the petnames in a different language other than English
sadisticpony: #the fanfiction i saw this week where op DIDNT KNOW HOW AUTOMATIC DOORS WORKED #and that they arent in peoples homes!!! of course. also opening the automatic door for someone is unironically very funny but its not #its not like. grabbing the door handle to let someone in. helpppp
danmeichael: #reminds me of the fic with the figure drawing class where the character started with the feet. #i love you feet first figure drawing author
meowmix1100blr: #me watching this one fic absolutely obliterate what the board of directors does
vexedhexes: #one time i read an architect character making a doorway bigger by building a bigger door #what a beautiful world. #OH. also gravity falls fic where they go 'oh piedmont is in california so its warm all year round'
leveragehunters: #characters going to a beer garden #And it's literally a garden outside the pub#It was a very cute mistake
fitofpique: #yes! #grown men do not get blind drunk off two beers #but i am possibly guilty of the hypothermia one #assuming it does not make you very horny?
dadvans-likes: #always thinking abt the soup kitchen fic #the entire setting of the fic was 'soup kitchen' #and i very quickly realized #the author did not know what a soup kitchen was #and they thought that soup kitchens only served soup #fic
msmargaretmurry: #i love fanfiction #once read a fic where the characters played 20 questions #but the author seemed to not know how to play 20 questions and was just kind of winging it........ #immaculate
shakespeareaddict: #Look I know not all of us are hockey experts #But it takes about ten seconds of research or any attention paid to the show to realize #That the Stanley cup playoffs are not in fucking September
baejax-the-great: #the funniest one i saw #was someone faking what church is like #like 1. they really didn't have to write an entire church experience for their fic #and 2. they had clearly never even watched a show where people went to church #it was bonkers weird
twosunson: #things ive seen authors faking #knowing how to unclog a drain #knowing. literally any history #knowing what ketamine looks like (apparently- oregano) #(you know who you are)
waterhorseyblues-ao3: #beltane being celebrated in winter #wales being portrayed as a completely separated land from england (i wish) #characters getting up after weeks of bedrest like that dosnt completely fuck you up
violetfairydust: #i once read a fic where the flight time from london to seattle was 3 hours
purekesseltrash: One time, in a fic set specifically in Des Moines, IA, two of the characters casually drove 20 minutes to the ocean. The memory continues to delight me. I want to know where that author thought that Iowa was.
No because I visited the Vatican for the first time this year, at the end of a 300 kilometers long pilgrimage, and my first thought upon entering St. Peter's was "Oh shit I thought it was the size of a normal church when I was writing that fic"
I made my mom a tiny Shakespeare doll for Mother's Day/her birthday! I sewed everything myself (body and clothes) and had to figure out the clothes patterns myself since I couldn't find any Shakespeare doll patterns around. He's not perfect, but I'm very happy with how he turned out :3
I learned a new technique for making hair just for this project too. I hot glued thick yarn around a length of wire so I could get his hair curls just right. It was tricky to get right (the hot glue wanted to get everywhere lol), but I love how it turned out :>
the best fanfiction you've ever read was written by a woman in her 40s before she made dinner for her kids. it was written by a teenager after school when they should've been studying for a history test. and a barista came up with the idea while they cleaned the espresso machine and busser fact-checked it on their break and the post-doc edited between writing grant proposals and the nurse apologized for typos in the notes after a long shift and behind every drabble and one-shot and multi-chapter fic there is a person with a wonderful and interesting and chaotic life and it is such a privilege that we get to be apart of it because they decided to do this thing we all share, for fun.
Ages of the actors Richard and Bolingbroke in the time of their production: (this play was produced a lot, couldn't do them all😅)
ESC 1991
Richard (Michael Pennington): 48
Bolingbroke (Michael Cronin): 49
An age of kings:
Richard (David William): 37
Bolingbroke (Tom Fleming): 36
BBC television shakespeare
Richard (Derek Jacobi): 40
Bolingbroke (Jon Finch): 36
Globe 2003
Richard (Mark Rylance): 43
Bolingbroke (Liam Brennan): 39
The hollow crown
Richard (Ben Whishaw): 32
Bolingbroke (Rory Kinnear): 34
Performance 1997
Richard (Fiona Shaw): 39
Bolingbroke (Richard Bremmer): 44
1971 movie
Richard (Ian McKellen): 32
Bolingbroke (Timothy West): 37
Globe 2019
Richard (Adjoa Andoh): 56
Bolingbroke (Sarah Niles): 32
RSC 2013
Richard (David Tennant): 42
Bolingbroke (Nigel Lindsay): 44
Globe 2015
Richard (Charles Edwards): 46
Bolingbroke (David Sturzaker): his age is a mystery apparently, but he's in his 30s-40s now, so in 2015 he was in his 20s-30s. He does not look like a man in his early 20s in the play, but I can't pin down an age.
So
Richard
Average age: 41.5
Youngest: 32 (Ian McKellen & Ben Whishaw) - age accurate
Oldest: 56 (Adjoa Andoh)
Bolingbroke
Average age: 38
Youngest: (possibly David Sturzaker), 32 (Sarah Niles)- age accurate
Oldest: 49 (Michael Cronin)
Age difference:
It's an even split between productions where Richard is older and ones where Bolingbroke is older.
There are 4 productions with a 4-5 years age difference, 4 where the boys are a year or two apart, none where they are the same age.
The biggest age gap is in the globe 2019 production, with 24 years between our youngest Bolingbroke and oldest Richard. The second biggest age gap is in the 2015 globe, at most 20 years, at least 7.
Excluding the outliers, the average age difference is 3 years, including them, it's 6.
The hollow crown is the closest we have to age accurate casting and age difference.
6/10 Bolingbrokes have a receding hairline, but only 3 are actively balding.
Middle Earth doesn't even have plate tectonics. All the mountains were placed there by the Ainur or some shit. The shape of Mordor isn't "unrealistic" the world was intelligently designed by Catholic elf gods.
