A rather good, if obsessively traditional, production with very few textual omissions. The special effects are primitive, but then this was made in 1970, but the two leads - particularly Jayston - make this a very good television MACBETH, certainly better than the BBC 1983 version and the two recent films of stage prductions. If you're looking for acting, rather than spectacle, then you should like this.
This is the 120-minute omnibus version (of the original serial, made for schools television, which was orioginally shown in five 25-mminute episodes.
Directed by
Charles Warren
Cast
Michael Jayston ... Macbeth
Brian Badcoe ... Lennox
Tim Hardy ... Ross
Barbara Leigh-Hunt ... Lady Macbeth
Ralph Nossek ... Banquo
Gary Watson ... Macduff
Roy Herrick ... Servant
David Weston ... Malcolm
Shirley Cooklin ... First witch / Gentlewoman
Roy Barraclough ... Caithness
Brian Godfrey ... Donalbain
Patricia Leventon ... Second witch
Martin Matthews ... Old man / Siward's son
Frederick Pyne ... Lord
Colin Rix ... First murderer
Lewis Teasdale ... Second murderer
Harry Burgess Wall ... Fleance
Rosalie Westwater ... Third witch