My viewing of the entire BBC Shakespeare Collection has passed the halfway point, with Julius Caesar scheduled to be the last watch of 2024, and 2025 to start off with the bang of Hamlet.  By the end of 2025, I should be able to say that I have seen all of Shakespeare’s plays.  But what about reading all of them?

Well, I reckon that I’ll be able to claim that feat, too.

My justification for this claim is that while I am watching the plays I have the subtitles playing at the bottom of the screen, and I read these at the same time as I am viewing the acting.

But does this count as reading his plays?

Okay, I admit it is not a very close reading of the play, but is it any worse than those theatre-goers who bring along a copy of the script to follow?

If nothing else, the subtitles have helped me pick up nuances of the language, which I might have missed otherwise; have undoubtedly greatly improved my understanding and enjoyment of the plays.

While I recognise that strict Shakespeare aficionados will be outraged by my cavalier, short-attention-span approach to the reading of the bard’s plays, I will continue to maintain that it is a case of something being better than nothing.

© Fergus Longfellow

Fergus Longfellow looks ahead to viewing more Shakespeare plays in 2025.