Twelfth Night, or What You Will (2003)

That was an excellent one.

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

I do like a lot of Shakespeare's plays, the language is not as easy to understand but some synopsis reading and some lessons on Shakespeare, like I had to do for English GCSEs and A Levels, will do just the trick. They have compelling stories and characters, and I love the poetic and witty style of the language. As much as I do love the likes of Hamlet, Midsummer Night's Dream, Merry Wives of Windsor(or Falstaff if you are an opera fan), Macbeth, Much Ado About Nothing, Antony and Cleopatra and Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth Night is my personal favourite. It is deliciously funny and contains some of Shakespeare's most poetic prose(Much Ado About Nothing and Antony and Cleopatra also).This 2003 version is not the definitive Twelfth Night for me. My favourite is between the 1980 and Branagh adaptations, and the Trevor Nunn film is excellent too for its great acting and exquisite visuals. I did find Sir Andrew rather cardboard, though Richard Bremmer did his very best with the role and does gain some chuckles, and two performances didn't work. Chiwetel Ejiofor is certainly handsome as Orsino but his performance has no real insight or motivation. David Troughton I do like, but even for a very rustic character like Sir Toby I did find him a little too coarse. While I did like the melancholic feel that the adaptation has, making the play more dimensional and more than a comedy(though essentially it is that) I did feel some parts did drag.Conversely, this Twelfth Night does look great. I always like gorgeous scenery and photography and there is plenty of that here. The songs are beautifully incorporated and have a nice sense of rhythm to them. The dialogue still has its poetry and is still hilarious, especially with Malvolio, while the melancholic aspect is done surprisingly well. There are some interesting touches, such as the asylum seekers subplot and the Sir Toby, Sir Andrew, Feste and Maria spying on Malvolio via CCTV, and the multi-cultural aspect proved good, not just from a historical perspective but also it makes the play more accessible to a wider audience and ethnic minorities(or so I think). The performances are very good on the whole, Claire Price is very moving as Olivia, and there is a very amusing Feste from Zubin Varla. The standouts though were Parminder Nagra, who is not just entrancing to look at but her Viola looks very natural, and Michael Maloney's brilliant Malvolio, I did have a good giggle at the sight of him in yellow tights (pretty) hideous as they were.Overall, interesting and surprisingly good. Maybe not the ideal version for everybody, especially traditionalists, but for those looking for solid fun this is a good watch. 7/10 Bethany Cox

As a rather hard line traditionalist I tend to hate modern adaptations of Shakespeare but in this lovely 2003 TV adaptation of the 12th Night I forgot the modern jetsam and got lost in the play. The explanation of the modern context I found irrelevant but once Parminder Nagra came on the scene I was entranced. Once again Shakespeare shows his absolute timelessness, where, whatever the dress, furniture, architecture and scenery his brilliant lines taken up with sensitivity and skill still have the power to move you to tears again and again. Even though the 1996 adaptation with Imogen Stubbs was quite brilliantly acted it pales before gentle sincerity of emotion shown by Nagra. Probably not a performance for the uninitiated but for a Shakespeareophile pure bliss.

Normally, modern adaptations of Shakespeare tend to be clunky and forced; Baz Luhrmann's "Romeo + Juliet" and Michael Almereyda's "Hamlet" are perfect testament to this. Even Richard Loncraine's "Richard III" falls on dull devices trying to place the action of that play in the imagined setting of World War Two. Perhaps it is that the tragedies and histories do not lend themselves well to being updated or embellished (see Julie Taymore's "Titus") and would best be left as they are.This adaptation of Twelfth Night, however, benefits greatly from the liberties Andrew Bannerman and Tim Supple take with it. Not only is the story better for the adaptation, but the songs are beautifully rendered and the acting and stage direction is superb.Also incredible is how much they accomplished with so little. This is quite obviously a low budget television adaptation with only a dozen or so sets and very few frills, but what the producers and directors manage to achieve with so little is startling. Whatever Bannerman and Supple made this for could not have exceeded the cost of a luxury car, but the film is a far better ride.

Despite having seen several successfully modern re-tellings of Shakespeare's work, this one caught me off guard. This version of "Twelfth Night" is absolutely smashing. The casting choices were excellent, and the players were most believable in their roles.For me, the highlight was when Feste sings "O Mistress Mine". I remember memorising this piece as a lad, and I confess that I could not think of it other than as a "period" piece. However, the song becomes completely modern and almost has a pop feel to it as Zubin Varla sings it while accompanying himself on the guitar.This version is very funny at several parts (think Malvolio) including some bits that would probably slip right past some directors (think Feste's reading of Malvolio's note). However, there is a very serious underlying atmosphere.