Show notes
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of Shakespeare's most popular works, written c1595 in the last years of Elizabeth I. It is a comedy of love and desire and their many complications as well as their simplicity, and a reflection on society's expectations and limits. It is also a quiet critique of Elizabeth and her vulnerability and on the politics of the time, and an exploration of the power of imagination.
With
Helen Hackett
Professor of English Literature and Leverhulme Research Fellow at University College LondonTom Healy
Professor of Renaissance Studies at the University of Sussexand
Alison Findlay
Professor of Renaissance Drama at Lancaster University and Chair of the British Shakespeare AssociationProducer: Simon Tillotson