"Jim, did it really not occur to you that the comment about Shakespeare's "cliché" just might have been a little joke ... ?"
If it was, I apologise - I have heard in said in all seriousness before now though

The best series of programmes on Shakespeare, 'My Shakespeare' was broadcast on Sky Arts (before it lost a channel and was dumbed down) filmed different leading actors talking about their various roles - I saved most of them and replay them occasionally - a really magnificent series of analyses of the characters they played
The one disappointment was David Tennant who, I thought, somewhat trivialised Hamlet
Just learned that Benedict Cumberbach's Hamlet is due for a screening in a couple of weeks in our local Arts Centre

One of the greatest surprises was Al Pachino's 'Merchant of Venice' - a play I have always had trouble with - approached superbly and sensitively
It was an odd, uplifting experience watching it one afternoon in the Galway Multiplex
We chose our seats in a near-empty cinema and, just before the film started about a dozen schoolgirls, unaccompanied, sat down a couple of rows in front of us
We expected fidgeting and chatting throughout - instead, rapt attention for the whole performance, followed by excited discussion #
Jim