(Edit: there are a couple of good readings of this poem on Youtube, and they are only an hour long. For the audience, it would have been better in four parts. The only reason for performing it in one go seems to be to show off the fact that Fiennes had memorised it (and even that is, of course, lost on TV). It's a it like listening to, not a Shakespeare play, but a very long monologue - same difficult language, but no story or characters to help you find your way. Incredibly dense, intricate, and rich in metaphor, it's surely too long for anyone to concentrate fully - certainly too long for me. However, I'm not convinced that such a staging, all in one go, is the right medium for it. 'Crispy' Ralph Fiennes' performance, and the thoughtful direction by his sister Sophie, really brings new life and power to TS Eliot's lesser-known major work. This was the best thing I've seen on the BBC for a long time.
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