Marketic It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Maleeha Vincent It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Rexanne It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

mmduffy I followed this entire series when I was a child in grade school, by choice, not because it was required for school. I used to read the plays at the pace of the series. The experience gave me a life-long love for Shakespeare and history. It even gave me a bit of an acting bug, although at an amateur level only. Whenever I read any of Shakespeare's history plays, the images that come to mind first are from this black and white production, seen on a big "furniture" TV set with a rabbit ear antenna, with all the "ghosts" and wobbles that go with that.Although the sets were minimal, if I remember correctly, that was totally irrelevant because the acting was so good. At the time I had no idea who any of the actors were. Now I see that many of them have become well known over the years. I particularly enjoyed Hotspur and Hal, whom I now see were played by Sean Connery and Robert Hardy. I would dearly love to see this available in video, especially since many of the plays are seldom performed and even fewer are available on video. It would be valuable also as a document of mid-20th century televised play production.

phytodoer As is true of so many, I loved this series and hope ! hope! hope! that it will be issued on DVD. It was far superior, in my view, to the subsequent Wars of the Roses. Please, BBC - make us happy and take our money! In addition to the fine actors mentioned by the others, I add Paul Daneman - unfortunately now dead - who was the perfect Richard III. When I read Shakespeare now, these are the voices I hear, the phrasing I remember. Daneman saying "So wise so young they say do ne'er live long" Or Jack May as the Duke of York - "Cold news for me, for I had hopes of France ..." Or Robert Hardy chuckling at the thought of old men remembering "with 'vantages" their deeds on St. Crispin's Day. I want to see it again!

nybackus-1 I saw this mini-series when I was in high school. I remember it as being absolutely brilliant and compelling. At the time, I knew none of the British actors in the series, but have since learned that some of today's stars performed in it, including Sean Connery (the original James Bond among many other roles), Judi Dench (Queen Elizabeth in "Shakespeare in Love" among many other roles) and Eilene Atkins (probably best known for creating "Upstairs/Downstairs" but also superb in many acting roles). Like the other commentator, I would like to see it again. I'm certain the production remains timeless, and I would hope that it has been or will be released on VHS or DVD. If you get a chance to see it, do not miss it.

Nancy Dallaire It was so very long ago (1960), but I have never forgotten this series and often wished it would reappear. So taken with it, I corresponded with Mr. Rathbun, then president of Standard Oil, which sponsored the presentation on PBS. He sent me a photo of the tapestry (actually a charcoal rendering) used behind the credits.To the opening theme music of Bayco's "Elizabethan Masque," my family and I gathered around our black & white TV to drink in Shakespeare's words as spoken by a group of excellent but relatively unknown players (at least to American audiences at the time).We were introduced to such actors as Sean Connery, Dame Judi Dench, Tom Fleming, Patrick Garland, Julian Glover and Robert Hardy. I have continued to enjoy their accomplishments ever since. One of the most interesting things was the way in which the actors continued to age in their respective roles as Shakespeare's "King" plays were presented, perhaps for the first time, in chronological order.I wish I could tell those actors just how much that series meant to me.If "Age of Kings" could be revived on VHS and/or DVD, it would so please those of us who long to see it again and those who missed it the first time around.GOOD NEWS! PBS HAS JUST ISSUED A DVD OF "AN AGE OF KINGS"! SEE THEIR JULY 2009 CATALOG, PAGE 19, OR CALL THEM TOLL FREE. I JUST ORDERED MINE!