Off by Heart: Shakespeare, BBC Two, review
James Walton reviews Off by Heart: Shakespeare, a BBC Two documentary following a contest in which schoolchildren are urged to embrace the words of the Bard.
3.5 
Budding thesp: Ben Crick, one of
the finalists in BBC Two’s ‘Off by Heart: Shakespeare’ Photo: BBC
7:30AM BST 20 May 2012
4 Comments
Saturday’s Off by Heart: Shakespeare (BBC Two) was a
programme designed to reassure the middle-aged — or as presenter Jeremy Paxman
put it, with his usual indifference to the common touch, “The X Factor
for people with brains”.
Two thousand young teenagers had originally taken part: all following the
dream of winning a small plastic star for the best performance of a
Shakespearean speech. But the programme’s high-mindedness (or possibly just
kindliness) meant that we were spared the early rounds. Instead, we picked up
the story with the nine finalists preparing to appear at the Royal Shakespeare
Theatre, Stratford.
In the days beforehand, a range of experts gave them assistance of perhaps
varying value. The chief acting coach was director Justin Audibert, who
according to 15-year-old Femi Akinfolarin, “is helping me to understand why
Shakespeare was invented”. (A remark, I would suggest, that’s a lot more
profound than it might sound.) Less obviously helpful was Struan Leslie, the
Royal Shakespeare Company’s “Head of Movement”, whose advice proved as baffling
as his job title. “You have to think,” he told them, “about making
three-dimensional space.”
As for the programme makers, they were clearly never quite sure how far to go
down the traditional talent-show route. Come the big day, the judges entered to
the usual wild applause – but consisted of Imogen Stubbs, Samuel West and Simon
Schama, and did their judging off-stage. We were also told in passing about the
tragedies that some contestants had suffered – but none was developed into
anything so vulgar as a tear-jerking back-story.
In the end, then, what really made the show work was the contestants
themselves. They were, of course, a carefully mixed bunch. But all were bursting
with enthusiasm, and all combined the courage to do something that would terrify
most grown-ups with a touching willingness to admit how nervous they felt.
True, a few did overact in the final – some almost heroically. One or two
tested the judges’ obvious commitment to accentuating the positive.
(“Wonderfully watchable, with a marvellous energy,” was Imogen Stubbs’s verdict
on Femi, “although if I was being honest, I couldn’t hear everything he said.”)
Most, however, were genuinely stirring, performing with an intelligence and
passion that reduced even Jeremy Paxman to a state that could only be described
as avuncular.
Personally I had a soft spot for Jack Gouldbourne, a young-looking 13 year-old who cheerfully described himself as “an odd child” and gave us an exhilaratingly vivid prologue to Henry V. Even so, it was hard to argue with the choice of winner – not least because she was worthy of a documentary in herself. Nuha Bazeer is a self-effacing but very clever Muslim girl whose Sri Lankan father introduced her to Shakespeare. He doesn’t mind her doing drama as a hobby but, he pointed out with a firm smile, “As far as our culture and religion are concerned, we are not keen on acting as a profession.”
After Nuha won, her father beamed with unmistakable pride. It was less easy to read his thoughts when Samuel West repeatedly urged him to let her become a full-time actress.
The Telegraph
Personally I had a soft spot for Jack Gouldbourne, a young-looking 13 year-old who cheerfully described himself as “an odd child” and gave us an exhilaratingly vivid prologue to Henry V. Even so, it was hard to argue with the choice of winner – not least because she was worthy of a documentary in herself. Nuha Bazeer is a self-effacing but very clever Muslim girl whose Sri Lankan father introduced her to Shakespeare. He doesn’t mind her doing drama as a hobby but, he pointed out with a firm smile, “As far as our culture and religion are concerned, we are not keen on acting as a profession.”
After Nuha won, her father beamed with unmistakable pride. It was less easy to read his thoughts when Samuel West repeatedly urged him to let her become a full-time actress.
The Telegraph
