In Our Time | Lear

King Lear

Melvyn Bragg is joined by Jonathan Bate, Catherine Belsey and Katherine Duncan-Jones to examine Shakespeare's tragedy, King Lear; how its themes of rule and misrule, of old age and family break-up would have spoken powerfully at the end of Elizabeth I's long and once glorious reign.

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Access

Licence: ERA Licence required

Content
  • Type: Factual, Plays
  • Channel: BBC Radio 4
  • Duration: 27'53''
  • Broadcast date: 2008
Usage

UK only
Staff and students of licensed education establishments only
Cannot be adapted

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  • Shakespeare Archive Resource

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Similar plays, poems and sonnets
King Lear | BBC Radio 4 | 2015

Book of the Week | William Shakespeare and the Year of Lear

In 1606, Shakespeare was writing for a royal family hungry for new entertainment while the threats of plague, insurrection and rebellion threatened English society.
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Book of the Week | 3: William Shakespeare and the Year of Lear

An outbreak of the plague threatens the livelihood of Shakespeare when the theatres are closed.