When Sir John Falstaff decides that he wants to have a little fun he writes two letters to a pair of Window wives: Mistress Ford and Mistress Page. When they put their heads together and ...
Director: David Hugh Jones
Stars: Alan Bennett, Richard O'Callaghan, Tenniel Evans, Richard Griffiths, Judy Davis, Prunella Scales.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084325/
Watched this in preparation for watching the Verdi opera Falstaff, which I acquired in preparation for listening to Robert Greenberg's Great Course on the Life and Operas of Verdi, where he spends 6.5 of 32 lectures. (Only Rigoletto gets more than 2 lectures, and that only gets 4.)
Reading the synopsis beforehand, I knew I wouldn't like this. I'm offended by similar plots in opera, where at least I get the extra benefits of music and singing, Here I get the extra burdens of Shakespeare's archaic language and British accents.
Maybe I didn't give it a fair chance. I'll resist giving it a 5, because I really didn't pay close attention. I mostly wanted to document that his was a 6-, not a mezzo-6, and certainly not an upper-6.
BTW, did WS name the family Page to confuse us whether that was someone's job? It distracted me a lot in the beginning.
Rated 7.1 (108)
The people who like this least are men 30-44 (6.8) and women 45+ (6.9).
BBC, dir. Jones; 6-
