In Search of Shakespeare

- Season 1

(2004)

The life of young William Shakespeare from his birth in Warwickshire, through his school years until age fourteen and up to his marriage to Anne Hathaway at age 19. It was a turbulent time of revolution in England as religion and solidarity to the crown were torn apart by the Tudors. William grew up in modest wealth and saw his family lose it all around age 12. It is the foundation upon which his writings will be shaped, his remembrances of the country life growing up in Stratford-upon-Avon.

Michael Wood's investigation into the life of the world's greatest writer, explains how this young man from Stratford became a star of Elizabethan London, uncovering a tale of religious conflict behind Shakespeare's lost years.

William has great success with writing and production with his theater company in "Romeo and Juliet", but shortly thereafter the plague forces closure of all production houses, so Shakespeare turns to writing poetry to earn a living. But then the death of his only son at 11 years old marks a time of upheaval in his life. The bard writes voluminous poems of love for his lost son which are interpreted as him falling for a young nobleman and has an affair with a married woman. Meanwhile his theater company builds The Globe, rebels somewhat against an ailing Elizabeth I, ...

In March 1603 Queen Elizabeth I dies with no heir. King James of Scotland, whose mother, Mary Queen of Scots Elizabeth had beheaded, succeeds to the English throne. Shakespeare's company is made to serve the king with theater on Christmas holiday. In 1605, when the Gunpowder Plot is foiled, the king takes a firm and cruel anti-papist stance and it is during this time that Shakespeare writes "MacBeth". The king sees it as seditious and bans any further productions. As Protestantism is forced upon all English subjects through heavy fines, imposed a on Shakespeare's ...