SOURCE: Phillips, Stephen J. “‘Adapted for Television’: David Thacker's Measure for Measure.” Forum for Modern Language Studies 35, no. 1 (January 1999): 23-33.

In the following review, Phillips examines David Thacker’s 1999 television adaptation of Measure for Measure for British broadcast, highlighting the cuts, transpositions, and characterization decisions that Thacker made for the televised medium.

In the autumn of 1994 the British Broadcasting Corporation transmitted a series of programmes that explored the work of Shakespeare. This coincided with a major festival at the Royal Shakespeare Company's London base. The BBC offerings included an overview of the cultural impact of the Bard, documentaries showing directors Adrian Noble and Michael Bogdanov at work in very different contexts, classic Shakespearean films, and a new television production of Measure for Measure by David Thacker. This was the first major British production of a Shakespeare play for television since the BBC/Time-Life series ended in 1985.¹

Desmond Davis...