While I have seen some classic performances of Lear in the past (Laurence Olivier's BBC production a couple of years before his death is still the benchmark against which I will always measure others) I had never seen a Macbeth that did justice to the script. That this production featured Ian McKellen as Macbeth and Judi Dench as Lady Macbeth, plus a supporting cast that included John Woodvine as Banquo and other members of England's Royal Shakespeare Company only served to whet my appetite, and did not disappoint.

Of the four performances included in this collection Macbeth is the only one to have international star power appearing on screen. In fact, unless you were a regular watcher of British television in the 1970s and 1980s I doubt if outside of that production any of the actors are familiar faces for audience members in North America.

But, as Ian McKellen says in his introductory notes on the special features part of the Macbeth disc, British actors have a history and tradition of 400 years of performing Shakespeare to draw upon. In every single production, each actor, no matter what size his or her role, is at home with the Shakespearean text as if it were his or her everyday language. They appear as casual in their conversation with each other as you or I talking with a friend and all the while maintain the poetic nature of the verse by paying strict attention to the meter.

An interesting point of comparison between the four productions is their staging. Both King Lear and Romeo and Juliet were staged specifically for television with the actors having rehearsed specifically to be performing for the camera. Twelfth Night and Macbeth on the other hand were both theatrical performances that were adapted for the small screen after successful stage runs. Listen and watch the actors in each of the former two as compared to the latter and you will notice a difference in style and tone when it comes to how they deliver their lines.

In Macbeth and Twelfth Night where the actors had prepared for the stage, and are primarily stage actors, you will notice a greater flamboyance in the way they speak the verse. Words are enunciated with greater care and there is a fullness to their speech and a colour to their performance that is lacking in the others. In both Lear and Romeo And Juliet the actors tend to "talk" their lines rather than "perform" them and are in general less theatrical, having rehearsed specifically for performances in front of the cameras.