29 марта состоялся первый показ первых двух серий второго сезона "Пустая корона".
The Telegraph дал второму сезону 4 звезды.Cumberbatch outrageously steals every scene in The Hollow Crown - first look review
The Henry VI trilogy comprises the least loved of Shakespeare’s histories. In the theatre their contorted politics – featuring many characters named after counties and cathedrals – can have the feel of a marathon run in a maze.
The latest instalment of The Hollow Crown – following on from the four plays, culminating in Henry V, which the BBC adapted in 2012 - has tidied the Henry VI plays into two two-hour films. The result, as spied from a press screening this week before the films’ broadcast in early May, is moreishly thrilling – and features a dazzling turn from one of the most talked about actors of our age.
The grand narrative arc of more than a century of dynastic conflict between Yorkists and Lancastrians is brought compellingly into focus by Ben Power’s streamlined adaptation. We rejoin the story with Henry VI (Tom Sturridge) now the nominal monarch but all power vested in his uncle, Henry V’s brother Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester (Hugh Bonneville). By the end of the first film, with much blood already spilled, the spectre of hellishness to come looms in the crooked silhouette of the Duke of York’s third son, summoned into the story.
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As the young Richard, Benedict Cumberbatch has only supporting player status, before he will have his time in the third film in the new series, Richard III, yet to be previewed. In Henry VI, his part may be small but he outrageously steals every scene he’s in. His Richard, at first an eager-eyed tag-along, is the product of horrors. A silent witness to his little brother’s murder, his bloodlust twists into axe-wielding malevolence the closer he edges to the throne. It is a gripping account of pure psychopathy.
Adding to the sense of menace, he confides his darkest thoughts directly to camera. When at the end of the second film he cradles the new-born son of his brother Edward IV, you know exactly what’s coming next. “I can murder while I smile,” he purrs. It’s from this son of York that Frank Underwood got all his best power moves.
As ever with The Hollow Crown, the cast consists of everyone you’ve ever heard of. Some such as Anton Lesser and Samuel West are to the manor born. It takes slightly longer to get used to Bonneville or Keeley Hawes speaking iambic pentameter. A standout is Sophie Okonedo, who towers as Henry VI’s ferocious French queen Margaret who, Dynasty-style, bitch-slaps Sally Hawkins’s Duchess of Gloucester.
The 2012 instalments of The Hollow Crown were shot by three directors. The saga’s conclusion is all in the hands of debut film director, and theatre old timer, Dominic Cooke. With so much talent on show, he sometimes isn’t sure which way to look, and chops between a formal fixed camera and prowling handheld. There’s even a helmetcam and, briefly, a falconcam.
But he has a theatre native’s deep trust that the best special effects are all in the language.
People will talk of these films’ timeliness as the UK rips itself apart over the Referendum. But for all the fretting over Englishness, The Hollow Crown is finally a study of paternity and kingship. Sturridge’s Henry VI is a peevish teen peacenik with a Christ complex. Geoffrey Streatfield’s Edward IV is a manly roustabout. The stage is set for Cumberbatch’s sinful turn on the throne.