William Shakespeare on Film

[School of Movies 2026]

Possibly the greatest playwright the world will ever see, creator of countless clever words and idioms, '"Heart of gold", "Wild goose chase", "Good riddance!" all gifts to the English language. He was also a man whose private life was shrouded in mystery, and for the average person our familiarity with him begins and ends in the one or two plays we are forced to study at school, along with The Lion King and an awareness of crackpot theories surrounding all of these plays being written by someone else (suspects include another playwright with a completely different and humourless style, a tyrannical lord who kicked a pregnant lady in the stomach and a man who died ten years before Billy Shakes stopped producing plays, so it was good of him to leave such a ready supply).

Here for you folks now, kicking off Shakestember, we discuss with Willow, a dozen film adaptations, many of which you will definitely want to seek out.

1. Romeo + Juliet (1996)

2. Much Ado About Nothing (1993)

3. Hamlet (1996)

4. The Tempest (2010)

5. The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021)

6. Othello (1995)

7. The Merchant of Venice (2004)

8. A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1999)

9. Richard III (1995)

10. Twelfth Night (1996)

11. King Lear (2008)

12. Titus (1999)

This week's After School Club: The Dark Tower (Part I)

Next week: Romeo + Juliet