An aging King invites disaster when he abdicates to his corrupt, toadying daughters and rejects his one loving, but honest one.
Acting
Olivier's final Shakespeare performance, ravaged and transcendent.
Production
Intimate TV staging that strips away pageantry for pure psychology.
Direction
Michael Elliott's claustrophobic framing traps Lear in his own mind.
Director
Michael Elliott
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This was Laurence Olivier's final Shakespeare performance and his only King Lear on screen; he had waited decades to be old enough.
Olivier's 1983 TV Lear deliberately echoed his 1947 stage version, creating a 36-year dialogue with himself as actor and aging man.
GB
