Tom Hiddleston talks Shakepeare’s Henry and Thor's Loki Exclusive: Hiddleston compares Prince Hal and Avengers villain Jul 16th 2012By Total Film

Tom Hiddleston’s portrayal of Prince Hal in the BBC’s The Hollow Crown is currently being slathered with praise, and we've spoken to The Avengers actor about his latest Shakespearean role.

The Hollow Crown is BBC Two’s ambitious collection of Shakespeare’s history plays, comprising Richard II, Henry IV Parts 1 & 2, and Henry V. Hiddleston is Prince Hal, a central player who goes on to become – SPOILER! – Henry V.

When we recently caught up with the Asgardian outcast, he spoke about the challenges of the role, and even compared Prince Hal to Loki.

What was it like filming Henry IV Parts 1 & 2 and Henry V?

"It’s so ambitious, what we’re trying to do. I did it Benjamin Button-style, in reverse order. So I started with the end of Henry V and slowly worked backwards.

"So before Christmas we shot the battle of Agincourt, and after Christmas we shot pre-Agincourt, and then I had a day off and went to the end of Henry IV, where Hal rejects Falstaff. And my last day on Henry IV is the opening scenes in the pub when he’s the most rebellious."

Sounds hard to get your head round…

"But I feel it’s kind of interesting, because, in character, I’m shedding responsibility as I go. So I started with the weight of war on my shoulders, the lessons that he learns about leadership and about war and kingship, and I end with the smiles and laughter of rebellion."

http://www.totalfilm.com/news/tom-hiddleston-talks-shakepeare-s-henry-and-loki

The Hollow Crown: Henry IV: Part 2, BBC Two, review Serena Davies reviews The Hollow Crown: Henry IV: Part 2, the second instalment of BBC Two adaptation of the Shakespeare play. (TELEGRAPH)

There is a figure that has towered over Richard Eyre’s films of Henry IV Parts One and Two, and it isn’t the one you’d expect. The usual show-stealer of these plays, Sir John Falstaff – played here by Simon Russell Beale – has looked quite the jolly jester in his fat-suit. But this icon of ribaldry and dipsomania hasn’t been making us laugh. And if Falstaff doesn’t make us laugh then we don’t care when he’s sad, and he spends quite a lot of Henry IV Part Two (Saturday, BBC Two) with a bloodshot eye for the bleaker side of life.

No, it’s the aged King who has been the wow of this middle leg of the BBC’s excellent Hollow Crown series of four of Shakespeare’s history plays. Surely Jeremy Irons’s portrayal of Henry IV ranks as his best work for TV since his breakthrough role as the eloquent, elegant but oddly vacant Charles Ryder in Granada’s Brideshead Revisited in 1981. Irons is a very fine screen actor, able to add rich dramatic colour for emphasis, but never forgetting to keep it detailed. And he’s a performer who works by instinct rather than calculation, which is why every scene he was in Saturday’s film flared with emotion.

“Heavy is the head that wears the crown,” agonised Irons as Henry, as the metal seemed to press in on his skull. That lament is the King’s leitmotif in this play, as an old man reflects on a reign fissured with anxiety. The hollow-eyed despair, the cracked nobility, the searing self-interrogation, this was like a dress rehearsal for King Lear. Irons has already done a Lear of sorts in Dennis Kelly’s modern twist on the play, The Gods Weep, but the way he produced the verse here, breathing and smelling the words, made me long for the real thing.

read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9399311/The-Hollow-Crown-Henry-IV-Part-2-BBC-Two-review.html

Review: Henry IV Parts 1 And 2 ReviewsTom Hiddleston and Simon Russell Beale are utterly spellbinding. Posted 5th July 2012, 4:44pm in TV, by Christa Ktorides (DIY)

Please note that if you do not know your Shakespeare or your English history then there will be spoilers below.

Following on from last weekend’s triumphant screening of Richard II on BBC Two, we were fortunate enough to attend a screening of Henry IV parts 1 and 2 at the BFI Southbank. Having now seen all four films of Aunty Beeb’s ambitious retelling of four of Shakespeare’s historical plays – the Henriad tetralogy – on the big screen we pity those of you that will only see them in the living room for they make for truly beautiful cinema.

With Henry IV parts 1 and 2, Rupert Goold (Richard II) hands over the director’s reigns to Sir Richard Eyre, a man who knows exactly what to cut from the text and what is essential to leave in. He also has a knack for rearranging scene order for the sake of television, understanding the medium entirely.

Rory Kinnear has grown up to be Jeremy Irons (Henry IV). He’s also a bit of a grump, despairing at the behaviour of his flightly playboy son Prince Hal (Tom Hiddleston). Hal you see would much rather be hanging out in the grimy bars of Cheapside with his cronies Falstaff (Simon Russell Beale) and Poins (David Dawson) than getting involved in matters of state.

When a rebellion against the King, led by the charismatic Hotspur (Joe Armstrong) comes to light, Hal must begin to face his responsibilities as heir to the throne and prove himself on the battlefield.

This is sexy Shakespeare with Eyre knowing a handsome chap when he sees one, making Hal a leather jacket sporting sexpot who likes a sauna (yes ladies, there's a scene in a sauna). He might be a bit of a soak (quite literally at one point as he’s covered in red wine) and if it were a modern tale he’d be that loud rugger bugger at the end of the bar, guffawing with his pals and ruining your evening but Eyre and Hiddleston make him a desirable devil, one that has our loyalties from the get go. The famously infectious Hiddleston laugh is in evidence throughout and Eyre wisely keeps the focus on Falstaff and Hal for the majority of Part 1, the rebellion of Hotspur taking something of a backseat so as to establish the characters of our drinking buddies and making the eventual dismissal by Hal of his former partner in crime all the more emotional come the close of Part 2.

Russell Beale nabs all the best lines as Falstaff but it’s what goes unsaid behind his eyes that truly connects with the audience, it’s Hal’s love he craves above money and status and yet the old rascal is his own worst enemy and Russell Beale, looking uncannily like Billy Barty in Masters of The Universe, amps up the naughtiness and self-serving nature of Shakespeare’s most amusing character to a Spinal Tap 11. It's worth noting too that Hiddleston can muster up a seriously great Jeremy Irons impression. Part 1 is something of a merry jape for a good portion of its running time. Hiddleston’s Hal is good company indeed, his back and forth’s with Russell Beale’s lovable rogue Falstaff a delight to behold.

READ MORE: http://www.thisisfakediy.co.uk/articles/television/review-henry-iv-parts-1-and-2/