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Irons, who will star this fall in PBS' "Great Performances" adaptation of "Henry IV," said he was shooting the film when he was approached by "Shakespeare Uncovered" producer Richard Denton about taking part. "Oh, that may be interesting if we can find the time. What do you want to do?" Irons recalled asking Denton. "And he said,
'Well, I want to put you in a boat. I want to put you on a horse. I want to take you to Agincourt.'" "This sounds very interesting," the 64-year-old actor replied, which opened the door to an unexpected education
-- and more opportunity for Irons' colorful and unbridled wit. "I learned, for instance, that the reason we won the Battle of Agincourt is because we had these amazing Welsh archers," while the French, in his words, "wore amazing stuff and great armor and (had) lovely horses, and they pranced around being gorgeous." Irons' lively approach to the subject matter dovetails with the goal of "Shakespeare Uncovered" as described by producer Denton. "The real drive (was) to make a series of films that would be entertaining, that would show Shakespeare with the kind of enthusiasm that Jeremy brings to it," Denton said, and would be accessible to those unschooled in the playwright's work. To please Shakespeare buffs, the programs also include fresh insights into the connection between his life and his art, he said. The bottom line on the Bard, according to Irons: Shakespeare endures as the greatest dramatist of all because he chronicled the eternal human condition in all its joys and sorrows. "When we see those plays now, they still speak to us with a resonance that many hundreds of plays written between Shakespeare's time and today don't," he said. ___ Online:
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