With freshly rechristened characters and brand-new dialogue, this British TV production of Othello is a "rethinking" of Shakespeare's play, albeit still retaining the original's power and potency. The story is set in the London of the near future, a crime-ridden metropolis virtually torn apart by racial hostilities. By order of the Prime Minister, black police officer John Othello (Eamonn Walker) is promoted to Commissioner, a post dearly coveted by Othello's friend, mentor and fellow officer Ben Jago (Christopher Eccleston). Seething with jealousy, Jago contrives to discredit Othello in the eyes of the public, and to destroy John's interracial marriage to the lily-white Dessie (Keeley Hawes). Among those used as unwitting dupes to gain Jago's ends are Othello's trusted lieutenant, Michael Cass (Richard Coyle), scrupulously honest police constable Alan Roderick (Del Synnott), and Jago's own wife, Lulu (Rachael Stirling).
Acting
Eccleston's Jago: charming, terrifying, and devastatingly petty
Direction
Sax turns London into a surveillance panopticon of blue light and rain
Writing
Shakespeare's iambic pentameter reborn as toxic workplace Slack DMs
Director
Geoffrey Sax
Christopher Eccleston
Ben Jago
Eamonn Walker
John Othello
Keeley Hawes
Dessie Brabant
Richard Coyle
Michael Cass
Rachael Stirling
Lulu
Del Synnott
Alan Roderick
Michelle Newell
Alma
Bill Paterson
Sinclair Carver
Tim Faraday
Chief Superintendent
Joss Ackland
James Brabant
Claire Oberman
prosecuting counsel
Jon Snow
Newsreader
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Made months after the Macpherson Report on institutional racism in the Met Police, this adaptation weaponizes contemporary British anxieties about 'political correctness' in hiring.
Eamonn Walker and Keeley Hawes had previously starred together in the 1997 series 'Supply & Demand'—their established chemistry makes the tragedy hit harder.
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