23 - Henry VI Part 3

It was with serious trepidation that I approached the reading the History Plays when setting up this challenge but I have to say they have turned out to be a highlight of the whole exercise. They can be very confusing at times, especially when people put on and take off titles quicker than they change their costumes and with the whole 'Names-Which-Aren't-Really-Names-But-Rather-The-Place-Where-They-Happen-To-Have-A-Castle' thing. 

However the plots and the intrigues have gripped me in the same way that soap operas capture the souls of their poor, helpless viewers. I have been following the rise and fall on the houses of York and Lancaster with the same edge-of-my-seat positioning that I adopt with any good thriller. Not to mention watching with morbid fascination the growing menace of Richard of Gloucester.

Of course my kids, both keen readers / viewers of Terry Deary's 'Horrible Histories', are forever pointing out to me that Richard was not as black as Billy-Boy Bard painted him. So I am mindful that the Shakespeare's version of English history is likely to be about as accurate as 'The Comic Strip Presents' version of the miner's strike or the GLC. But who cares for history when you have villains to boo, queens to woo and the three-on-one stabbing action of the York Boys against Prince Ed!

Tune in again soon for the final instalment of "The Histories!"  

And Finally - Beware, for the hunchback cometh...

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