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In Search of Shakespeare

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Episodes:

• In Search of Shakespeare: Ep.1 - A Time of Revolution

  This series explores the life of the world's greatest writer. Mixing travel, adventure, interviews, specially shot sequences on the road, this history series sets the life of the poet in the turbulent times in which he lived -- a time of surveillance, militarism and foreign wars. The first episode sets Shakespeare's life in the early years of Elizabeth's reign, at the beginning of Elizabeth's Cultural Revolution. Contrary to the myth, Shakespeare came from an upwardly mobile family. In the new Protestant state of Elizabeth, Shakespeare's family is loyal to the old faith. Between the ages of 12 and 15 his family is ruined as the government turns up the heat in its persecution of the old religion. Later, our hero is an 18-year-old father with no prospects; but his marriage also gives us his first known work, a love poem to his pregnant wife on their wedding day.

  Length:	00:55:18

• In Search of Shakespeare, Ep.2 - The Lost Years

  This series explores the life of the world's greatest writer. Mixing travel, adventure, interviews, specially shot sequences on the road, this history series sets the life of the poet in the turbulent times in which he lived -- a time of surveillance, militarism and foreign wars. In Episode Two - The Lost Years - Michael Wood explores conflicting theories of how Shakespeare spent the ten years between his marriage to Anne Hathaway and his emergence as a star writer in London. Apart from the birth of his three children, absolutely nothing is known about Shakespeare's life between the ages of 18 and 28, but there are some intriguing clues.

  Length:	00:56:06

• In Search of Shakespeare, Ep.4 - For All Time

  This series explores the life of the world's greatest writer. Mixing travel, adventure, interviews, specially shot sequences on the road, this history series sets the life of the poet in the turbulent times in which he lived -- a time of surveillance, militarism and foreign wars. In Episode Three of his historical detective story Michael Wood uncovers Shakespeare's rise to fame and fortune in Elizabethan London, and the disasters in life and love which marked his path to greatness. The missionary and poet Robert Southwell, had challenged poets to face up to their times and return to God. Rejecting the plea to write religious poetry, Shakespeare pens "Romeo and Juliet" and "A Midsummer Night's Dream," cementing his place as England's greatest popular playwright. In his late thirties, pursuing his own path between the extremes, Shakespeare had hit on the true duty of poets: "to speak what we feel, not what we ought to say."

  Length:	00:55:17

• In Search of Shakespeare. Episode 03-The Duty of Poets.

  This series explores the life of the world's greatest writer. Mixing travel, adventure, interviews, specially shot sequences on the road, this history series sets the life of the poet in the turbulent times in which he lived -- a time of surveillance, militarism and foreign wars. In Episode Three of his historical detective story Michael Wood uncovers Shakespeare's rise to fame and fortune in Elizabethan London, and the disasters in life and love which marked his path to greatness. The missionary and poet Robert Southwell, had challenged poets to face up to their times and return to God. Rejecting the plea to write religious poetry, Shakespeare pens "Romeo and Juliet" and "A Midsummer Night's Dream," cementing his place as England's greatest popular playwright. In his late thirties, pursuing his own path between the extremes, Shakespeare had hit on the true duty of poets: "to speak what we feel, not what we ought to say."

  Length:	00:55:17

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