imagine... Season 29 Episode 1 - Shylock's Ghost

Airdate: 2015-Oct-27

Episode summary:

Alan Yentob travels to the ghetto in Venice with award-winning novelist Howard Jacobson as he embarks on a retelling of Shakespeare's most performed play, The Merchant of Venice. Through a series of lively -often fiery - interviews, they examine the charge of anti-Semitism against Shakespeare, whose character Shylock remains one of the most odious and divisive fictional Jews in history.How did the moneylender from Venice become such a useful propaganda tool in Nazi Germany? And how much of a liberty will Jacobson be taking when he uproots the action to modern-day Alderley Edge, and audaciously reinterprets the infamous 'pound of flesh'?Interviewees include Antony Sher, Anthony Julius and Stephen Greenblatt.

About imagine... series:

The biggest names from the world of art, film, music, literature and dance. Alan Yentob gets close up with those shaping today's cultural worl...Show more >