Book contents
- Shakespeare Survey 75
- Shakespeare Survey
- Shakespeare Survey
- Copyright page
- Editor’s Note
- Contributors
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Understanding Iago, An Italian Film Adaptation Of Othello: Clientelism, Corruption, Politics
- Circumventing Marginality: The Curious Case Of India’s Othello Screen Adaptations
- Othello’s Kin: Legacy, Belonging And The Fortunes Of The Moor
- ‘More Fair Than Black’: Othellos On British Radio
- ‘This Fair Paper’: Othello And The Artists’ Book
- Othello: A Dialogue With The Built Environment
- ‘[A] Maid Called Barbary’: Othello, Moorish Maidservants And The Black Presence In Early Modern England
- ‘The Moor’s Abused By Some Most Villainous Knave, Some Base Notorious Knave, Some Scurvy Fellow’: Legal Spaces, Racial Trauma And Shakespeare’s The Tragedy Of Othello, The Moor Of Venice
- Ben Jonson’s Sejanus And Shakespeare’s Othello: Two Plays Performed By The King’s Men In 1603
- Iago And The Clown: Disassembling The Vice In Othello
- Pitying Desdemona In Folio Othello: Race, Gender And The Willow Song
- Desdemona’s Honest Friend
- Suffering Ecstasy: Othello And The Drama Of Displacement
- Othello’s Sympathies: Emotion, Agency And Identification
- Warning The Stage: Shakespeare’s Mid-Scene Entrance Conventions
- Looking For Perdita In Ali Smith’s Summer
- Grafted To The Moor: Anglo-Spanish Dynastic Marriage And Miscegenated Whiteness In The Winter’s Tale
- Rhyme, History And Memory In A Mirror For Magistrates And Henry VI
- ‘Bad’ Love Lyrics And Poetic Hypocrisy From Gascoigne To Benson’s Shakespeare
- Viola’s Telemachy
- New Analogical Evidence For Cymbeline’s Folkloric Composition In The Medieval Icelandic Ála Flekks Saga
- ‘But When Extremities Speak’: Harley Granville-Barker, Coriolanus, The World Wars And The State Of Exception
- Shakespeare Performances in England, 2021
- Shakespeare Performances in England, 2021
- Professional Shakespeare Productions In The British Isles, January–December 2020
- The Year’s Contribution To Shakespeare Studies
- Abstracts Of Articles In Shakespeare Survey 75
- Index
‘More Fair Than Black’: Othellos On British Radio
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 August 2022
By
Edited by
Book contents
- Shakespeare Survey 75
- Shakespeare Survey
- Shakespeare Survey
- Copyright page
- Editor’s Note
- Contributors
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Understanding Iago, An Italian Film Adaptation Of Othello: Clientelism, Corruption, Politics
- Circumventing Marginality: The Curious Case Of India’s Othello Screen Adaptations
- Othello’s Kin: Legacy, Belonging And The Fortunes Of The Moor
- ‘More Fair Than Black’: Othellos On British Radio
- ‘This Fair Paper’: Othello And The Artists’ Book
- Othello: A Dialogue With The Built Environment
- ‘[A] Maid Called Barbary’: Othello, Moorish Maidservants And The Black Presence In Early Modern England
- ‘The Moor’s Abused By Some Most Villainous Knave, Some Base Notorious Knave, Some Scurvy Fellow’: Legal Spaces, Racial Trauma And Shakespeare’s The Tragedy Of Othello, The Moor Of Venice
- Ben Jonson’s Sejanus And Shakespeare’s Othello: Two Plays Performed By The King’s Men In 1603
- Iago And The Clown: Disassembling The Vice In Othello
- Pitying Desdemona In Folio Othello: Race, Gender And The Willow Song
- Desdemona’s Honest Friend
- Suffering Ecstasy: Othello And The Drama Of Displacement
- Othello’s Sympathies: Emotion, Agency And Identification
- Warning The Stage: Shakespeare’s Mid-Scene Entrance Conventions
- Looking For Perdita In Ali Smith’s Summer
- Grafted To The Moor: Anglo-Spanish Dynastic Marriage And Miscegenated Whiteness In The Winter’s Tale
- Rhyme, History And Memory In A Mirror For Magistrates And Henry VI
- ‘Bad’ Love Lyrics And Poetic Hypocrisy From Gascoigne To Benson’s Shakespeare
- Viola’s Telemachy
- New Analogical Evidence For Cymbeline’s Folkloric Composition In The Medieval Icelandic Ála Flekks Saga
- ‘But When Extremities Speak’: Harley Granville-Barker, Coriolanus, The World Wars And The State Of Exception
- Shakespeare Performances in England, 2021
- Shakespeare Performances in England, 2021
- Professional Shakespeare Productions In The British Isles, January–December 2020
- The Year’s Contribution To Shakespeare Studies
- Abstracts Of Articles In Shakespeare Survey 75
- Index
Summary
In 1933, as the BBC prepared to air its latest radio production of Othello, the critic and playwright Herbert Farjeon wrote an article for the Radio Times headlined: ‘Othello was a black man.’ In it, he states that, ‘in most present-day stage versions of the play, this all-important point is blunted. The broadcast version will enable us, if not to see, at least to imagine Othello the colour Shakespeare first painted him.’1 However, for almost another seven decades, imagining was all that audiences could do, as a succession of white actors continued to play the role. Examining the part of Othello as played on BBC radio charts the changing attitudes as to who could, and should, play him. This article will look at some of the key productions over the BBC’s 100-year history, reaction to them, and the changing attitudes to a character referred to in the text as ‘more fair than black’ (Othello, 1.3.290)
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Shakespeare Survey 75Othello, pp. 49 - 59Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022