The Hollow Crown: Wars of the Roses

With Apple TV+ releasing The Tragedy of Macbeth on streaming this weekend, here are a few other Shakespeare plays to stream as well.

Poldark Season 3 arrives on BBC One in only a few days. Unfortunately for us in the US, it won't air on PBS until October.

What do in the meantime? We've got some suggestions. Here are five programs you might want to check out while we wait. 

After a long wait, American audiences are finally getting the chance to see The Hollow Crown: The Wars of the Roses for themselves. The sequel series is airing on PBS’ Great Performances this December. (Friendly reminder: you should definitely check your local listings and find out the specifics because end of year pledge-time may affect what days this airs).

The original The Hollow Crown series adapted four of Shakespeare’s history plays – Richard II, Henry IV Pts. 1 and 2 and Henry V – into a single chronological narrative, with the majority of the relevant actors performing the same roles across all the plays. The three-part sequel takes on the next part of the story, the titular Wars of the Roses, when two families battled for control of England’s throne.

After what feels like an excruciatingly long wait, the highly anticipated sequel to The Hollow Crown, subtitled The Wars of the Roses, is finally airing in America on PBS’ Great Performances this December.

The original Hollow Crown adapted four of Shakespeare’s history plays – Richard II, Henry IV Pts. 1 and 2 and Henry V – into a single chronological narrative, with the majority of the relevant actors performing the same roles across all the plays. The three-part sequel takes on the next part of the story, and will feature adaptations of Henry VI (streamlined into two parts) and Richard III.  The plays recount the story of the titular Wars of the Roses, when two families – the Plantagenets and the Lancasters – battled for control of England’s throne.

PBS has released a new video interview where several members of the Wars of the Roses cast and production team – including star Benedict Cumberbatch – discuss the series, Shakespeare’s works, and the history behind the plays.

Fans of the star-studded Shakespeare adaptation The Hollow Crown will be pleased to know that the sequel series The Hollow Crown: Wars of the Roses has an American airdate at last! The films will premiere as part of the new season of PBS' Great Performances and will air on three consecutive Sunday nights from December 11 -25th.

[Insert multiple screaming face emojis here.]

The BBC has released another trailer for its upcoming sequel to The Hollow Crown. Subtitled The Wars of the Roses the series is the centerpiece of the corporation’s big celebration to mark the 400th anniversary of playwright William Shakespeare’s death.

The original Hollow Crown aired in 2013 and adapted four of the Bard’s history plays – Richard II, Henry IV Pts. 1 and 2 and Henry V – into a single chronological narrative, and had the same actors play the same roles across all the plays. This second series is comprised of adaptations of Richard III and Henry VI, though they’re streamlining the latter into two films, rather than three. (Which, on the whole, is probably a good decision.)

These plays recount the story of the titular Wars of the Roses, when two families – the Plantagenets and the Lancasters – battled for control of England’s crown. 

This week, the BBC announced that they are planning an all-out celebration to mark the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death this spring. The month-long BBC 2016 Shakespeare Festival will kick off on the Bard’s birthday – April 23 – and include exiting new programming across all the corporation’s television, radio, online and educational platforms.

A centerpiece of this festival will be the premiere of the highly anticipated sequel to 2013’s critically acclaimed series The Hollow Crown.

The Wars of the Roses, the highly anticipated follow up to Shakespeare mini-series The Hollow Crown started filming in late September and, happily, the kick off to official production has resulted in some more exciting casting announcements as the massive cast of Yorks and Lancasters gets fleshed out more fully.

Plus, we got our first official look at Sherlock star Benedict Cumberbatch in his lead role as hunchbacked King Richard III. Huzzah, indeed.

Rejoice, there’s finally some official news about the upcoming sequel to award-winning Shakespeare mini-series The Hollow Crown!

The original four-part series adapted four of Shakespeare’s history plays – Richard II, Henry IV Part One, Henry IV Part Two and Henry V – into a single chronological narrative, used the bulk of the same actors for the same roles across all the relevant plays, and starred Ben Whishaw, Tom Hiddleston and Jeremy Irons as three kings of England. The sequel is set to be subtitled War of the Roses and will adapt Shakespeare’s Henry VI (in two parts rather than three) and Richard III, the four plays that tell the story of the rise of the Tudor dynasty and the fall of the Plantagenets.

Sherlock star Benedict Cumberbatch has already been announced to play the ill-fated King Richard III across all three plays (though his character doesn’t appear much in the Henry VI trilogy to be honest), He will be joined by a star-studded ensemble, led by none other than the great Dame Judi Dench (yes, really) as Richard’s mother Cecily, the Duchess of York, Downton Abbey star Hugh Bonneville as Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, Keeley Hawes as Queen Elizabeth and Tom Sturridge as King Henry VI. Sophie Okonedo was previously named to play Margaret of Anjou.

Um, wow. Wow.