Shakespeare's Restless World (Omnibus)

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BBC Radio 4 Extra

Shakespeare's Restless World (Omnibus): Episode 1

Episode 1

BBC Radio 4 Extra - Shakespeare's Restless World (Omnibus), Episode 1

Neil MacGregor uses objects of the time to explore the turbulent world of Shakespeare.

Neil MacGregor uses objects of the time to explore Shakespeare’s turbulent world. Starting with Sir Frances Drake. From 2012.

Object-based history series presented by Neil MacGregor, former Director of the British Museum.

Taking artefacts from William Shakespeare's time, he explores how Elizabethan and Jacobean playgoers made sense of the unstable and rapidly changing world in which they lived.

With old certainties shifting around them, in a time of political and religious unrest and economic expansion, Neil asks what the plays would have meant to the public when they were first performed.

He uses carefully selected objects to explore the great issues of the day that preoccupied the public and helped shape the works, and he considers what they can reveal about the concerns and beliefs of Shakespearean England.

Omnibus of the first five of 20 episodes. 

Beginning with Sir Francis Drake's circumnavigation of the globe and how it changed the way Shakespeare's audiences viewed the world and their country's place on it.

For the first time, England was engaging with the whole world.

Producer: Paul Kobrak

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 2012.

Your digital radio entertainment station showcasing the best in comedy and drama

Your digital radio entertainment station showcasing the best in comedy and drama. With recent favourites from BBC Radio 4.

Factual: History

Exploring the world of William Shakespeare through a selection of objects from the time.

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