The BBC Television Shakespeare

Producer Cedric Messina conceived the idea for the series in 1975 while filming an adaptation of J. M. Barrie's The Little Minister at Glamis Castle in Scotland, realizing the grounds would be perfect for As You Like It, which grew into the idea of adapting all 37 Shakespeare plays.

When Messina pitched the idea, the BBC's Drama/Plays division was skeptical it could be financially viable, so he bypassed his department heads and took the proposal directly to Director of Programmes Alasdair Milne and Director-General Ian Trethowan, who greenlit the project.

The project was so large that the BBC could not finance it alone and needed a North American partner; funding was eventually secured from Morgan Guaranty Trust, Exxon, and Metropolitan Life, with a total budget reported to be around $16 million.

Public funding interest from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting caused controversy in the US, as labor unions like AFTRA and the AFL-CIO, along with Joseph Papp of the New York Shakespeare Festival, objected to American public money subsidizing British television production.

An early plan to form a single repertory company to perform all 37 plays was blocked by the British Actors' Equity Association, which insisted many different members get roles and that only British and Irish actors could be cast.

Messina's attempt to cast James Earl Jones as Othello was abandoned after Equity threatened to strike over the casting of an American actor, forcing the production of Othello to be pushed back to a later season.

The original plan to shoot the eight history plays in chronological order with a single director and linked casting collapsed early on when actors like Jeremy Bulloch and David Swift proved unable to return for sequel roles, forcing a restructuring of how the history cycle was filmed.

The Shakespeare in Perspective companion series often featured presenters who had not seen the actual production they were introducing, most notably Dennis Potter's introduction to Cymbeline, which described a mystical, fairytale atmosphere completely at odds with Elijah Moshinsky's 17th-century court-set adaptation.