Did somebody say...Tim Curry as Shakespeare?
Hullo ducklings. I had my last maths-related exam yesterday and it went pretty horrifically - you know that thing you get sometimes in an exam when you KNOW you revised this particular topic and you KNOW that you had looked at that formula just before the exam specifically so that you wouldn’t forget and YET during the exam even though you can see the glorious page of notes you’d written on the topic you can’t for the life of you see what it says? Yeah. That’s what it was like. I am now trying to steadfastly ignore all visions of me getting my ass hauled back here in August to re-sit my Finance exam. And then having to explain to my parents why. I can also pretty much kiss all hopes of getting a First this year good-bye too, but that’s somewhat less distressing than having to actually re-sit an exam.
HOWEVER, as with any and all upsetting things, crack from your fandom of choice can do a lot to soothe the pain. And luckily in my fandoms the crack seems to pretty much write itself.
Today I went over to Giulia’s to hang out and to watch this highly intriguing-sounding 1970’s ITV drama on the life of William Shakespeare. Starring Tim Curry.
Oh yes you read that right - out there somewhere in the wide wide world there is a mini-series starring TIM CURRY AS SHAKESPEARE. And you can bet it is as epic as it sounds.
I just can’t believe I’d a.) never heard of it before and that b.) it isn’t more well-known. It is just seriously magnificent in all its high-camp low-budget glory. But you knew that anything with young!Tim Curry was going to be pretty fantastic, didn’t you?
And it really is. I only wish I could show you some of my favourite scenes from it, but apparently the only clip that exists of this mini-series online is this scene:
(Can you feel the OTT angst?)
Click to viewAnd that scene really doesn’t do justice to the brilliance of the series and almost more importantly it doesn’t do justice to the fantastic-ness of the Earl of Southampton. (It’s his only stupid scene. He isn’t nearly so dumb otherwise. Though as you can see from the clip, he is quite delectable without clothes on). And oh the sexual tension. So so many scenes of those two sitting across that impossibly long table, staring at each other smolderingly and eating in the most suggestive manner you ever did see. <3 It is just too fantastic. And basically I just love the Earl. (Me and Giulia now call him Southy ). My favourite out of everything though might have to be his first meeting with Will. It is in the second episode where we first meet him and a charlatan cheating the Elizabethan merchant-class out of their money by selling them “stones from the Egyptian pyramids” - apparently the only sure-fire cure for the Plague. One of these fine gentlemen eventually notices the pretty man trying stealing his money pouch and so a chase scene ensues and the Earl escapes by hiding in a tavern where lo! Who should be feasting there but The Bard and his company of actors? The Earl flirts shamelessly with Tim Curry whom he eventually manages to persuade to have a drink with him in a random tavern where men knuckle-fight half-naked. As you do of course.
The long and short of it is, he basically goads Tim Curry into breaking-and-entering a property together so that they can steal silver candle-holders. Tim Curry, irritated at being called a coward by this ponced-up pretty man, agrees. (I should probably mention at this point that you’re not supposed to know yet that the Earl is an Earl). So off they go, breaking into this grand house where they are caught in the act by the servants and it is eventually the Earl’s boy-servant (called Hercules no less) who reveals the Earl’s charade by calling him My Lord.
Just wow. What kind of roundabout way is that to get someone into your bed?? He couldn’t have just asked the man out outright oh no, why not pretend to be a penniless mountebank first, then get him to break and enter into his own bedroom and once there - lure Will Shakespeare to stay for the night with the promise of wine and plovers eggs?
One more note on this production: I love how much of Dr. Frank’n’Furter Tim Curry channels at times. Especially when he is Shakespeare playing a part - possibly it’s all the stage make-up and the lurid red tights but it does make me squee. Me and Giulia worked out that this production happened after the first stage-showing of Rocky Horror but before the movie was filmed. Methinks we need to watch Rocky Horror again and see if I can’t see elements of The Bard being channeled through. It would certainly make for an interesting viewing.
Anyway, as you can see my journals really shouldn’t be called journals at all. It’s purely become a squee-vent through which I can ramble about all the pretty things life occasionally throws out at us.
Ginie
