Cultural depictions of Richard III of England

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Richard III of England has been depicted in popular culture many times.

Contents

[edit] Literature

  • The foremost work of literature featuring Richard III is William Shakespeare's eponymous play. He is also a character in Henry VI, Part 2 and Henry VI, Part 3.
  • Sharon Kay Penman's The Sunne in Splendor gives a comprehensive account of the Wars of the Roses. However, the author has made additions and minor adjustments to enrich the story.
  • Anne Easter Smith's A Rose for the Crown reconstructs the life of the woman who bore Richard's illegitimate children. Historians think this may have been Katherine Haute, who is mentioned in household records: this book is an attempt to create her story.
  • Sandra Worth's award-winning The Rose of York: Love & War (2003) presents the account of Richard III from the Ricardian viewpoint.
  • Rosemary Hawley Jarman's novel We Speak No Treason (1971) is another account from the Ricardian viewpoint, told through three courtiers.
  • Reay Tannahill's The Seventh Son is a sympathetic but unromanticized treatment of Richard III.
  • The best-known treatment of the subject is Josephine Tey's The Daughter of Time (1951), which looks at the evidence on all sides relating to the disappearance of the Princes in the Tower.
  • The fantasy series by George R. R. Martin, A Song of Ice and Fire, takes place in a situation similar to Richard III's reign, but transposes the characters of that time. In this account, the deaths of Richard's nephews are faked. It represents a fantastical but parallel line, with many of the same names and circumstances.
  • Posie Graeme-Evans's trilogy about the later Plantagenet kings features a young Richard III.
  • In Robert Louis Stevenson's The Black Arrow: A Tale of the Two Roses a young Richard III is a significant secondary character, as "Richard Crookback".
  • In Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series, the Shakespeare play is treated in the same way as The Rocky Horror Show is treated in our real world, with regular audiences dressing up as characters from the play, stepping in to take part in it, and regular, evolutionary audience participation.
  • In Mark Twain's A (Burlesque) Autobiography he writes: "I was born without teeth--and there Richard III had the advantage of me; but I was born without a humpback, likewise, and there I had the advantage of him."
  • In the Jonny Quest comic, #10, March 1987: "Winters of Discontent", Jonny and Hadji are accidentally sucked back in time and meet Richard III, only to find the princes are not locked in the tower (they adore their uncle), that Richard, not deformed, is loved by the people, and that there is a plot by Henry to usurp Richard and launch a smear campaign to legitimize his own claim to the throne. The theme is that history is written by the winners and that the truth will out.
  • Dickon by Jack Pulman (1979) is a play premiered by the John Lewis Partnership Dramatic Society, directed by Michael Deacon, and starring Alan Patient as Richard III.

[edit] Film

Richard has been portrayed by the following actors on film, mostly in versions of the Shakespeare play:

In addition, Looking for Richard is a 1996 feature documentary about putting on the play directed by and starring Al Pacino.

[edit] Television

Richard has been portrayed on television by:

  • William Windom in Shakespeare's Richard III (1950), an episode of the American series Masterpiece Playhouse
  • Paul Daneman in the BBC series An Age of Kings (1960), which contained all the history plays from Richard II to Richard III, and in the drama Traitor's Gate (1962)
  • Wolfgang Kieling in the West German TV version of Shakespeare's play König Richard III (1964)
  • Ian Holm in War of the Roses (1965), which was a filmed version of the Royal Shakespeare Company performing all three parts of Henry VI and Richard III
  • Adalberto Maria Merli in the Italian serial La Freccia nera (1968), an adaptation of The Black Arrow
  • Péter Haumann in III. Richárd (1973), a Hungarian version of the Shakespeare play
  • Colin Starkey in the "Who Killed the Princes in the Tower?" episode of the BBC drama documentary series Second Verdict (1976)
  • Peter Cook in the first episode of the BBC comedy series The Black Adder (1983)
  • Ron Cook in the BBC Shakespeare versions of Henry VI, Part 2, Henry VI, Part 3 and The Tragedy of Richard the Third (1983)
  • Andrew Jarvis in the BBC series The Wars of the Roses (1989), which included all of Shakespeare's history plays performed by the English Shakespeare Company
  • Jens Geutebrück in King Richard the Third (1994), a German version of the Shakespeare play
  • Antony Sher (voice) in the BBC series Shakespeare: The Animated Tales (1994)
  • Paul Mohan in an episode of the British educational TV series Historyonics entitled "Richard III" (2004)

A comic "secret history" of Richard III is presented in the British historical sitcom Blackadder. In the series' pilot episode, Richard III (played by Peter Cook) defeats Henry Tudor at Bosworth Field, but is accidentally killed by bumbling noble Edmund Blackadder (Rowan Atkinson), son of the adult Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York (Brian Blessed). The Duke ascends the throne and is crowned "King Richard IV", and Edmund, now prince, rechristens himself as the Black Adder. When the entire royal family dies in the series' final episode, Henry Tudor usurps the throne and rewrites history as it is known today.

Richard III is referenced in series 2 of the BBC animated series Monkey Dust. A history documentary talks of fiscal reforms perpetrated by him whilst he was Duke of Gloucester and tells how this made England rich and Scotland poor, and then pans out to men in a pub in England football strips chanting, "there's only one Duke of Gloucester".

[edit] Other