This was a stroke of genius. Getting a well respected Shakespearian actor to play a terrible Shakespearian actor. I cannot stop laughing every time I see this scenes
When he was a younger man, Sir Jacobi played Hamlet in a BBC production. His final dialogue was beautifully acted. Comparing it against the Frasier version makes the overacting so much more hilarious. Only great actors can parody themselves from such sublimity into such ridiculousness.
@Alexander Hendry My ‘pedantry’ is more than counterbalanced with massive ignorance and stupidity in the RU-vid comments sections. The other side is definitely winning, so don’t worry about that.
I always thought a funny twist to this episode would have been Headley getting a thunderous standing ovation and being mobbed with praise by 'Space Patrol' geeks, and Frasier being asked to arrange more performances.
That actually would have been sweet and could have been an interesting character development moment where Frasier and Niles realise it’s possible to appreciate Shakespeare and goofy science fiction
I was thinking of this too since Frasier and Niles themselves were captivated by Headley in the past and maybe the audience haven't seen good Shakespeare performances and wouldn't notice.
I would like that. The episode was perfect so it should have been the next episode they are dealing with the attention of the geeks and Jacobi who is with them for some reason. Maybe Frasier and Niles try to secure him some gig in the reboot of the 'Space Patrol' so he will stop acting.
This clip is a HOOT! I was lucky enough to see and meet Sir Derek when he was with the RSC in Much Ado About Nothing and Cyrano de Bergerac in NYC fall of 1984. I'd been a fan since his I, Claudius days. I was in HEAVEN!!!
Jackobi was such wasted potential with The Master, I love John Simm, Michelle Gomez and Sacha Dhawan’s performances but there was something so uniquely chilling about how sadistic Jackobi’s Master was. Whilst the other Masters were motivated by insanity he was motivated by pure rage and he was honest to god scary because of it
@@mrcritical6751 so Jacobi has a huge line of stories in big finish about his version of the master dubbed "the war master" and it perfectly fits. He is utterly chilling and ruthless in his plans in the series. Oftentimes taking the doctors name to get his way. Mind you there is no doctor to stop him in this series
I actually sat through this episode once with someone who claimed that they didn't find his performance bad. She even said she didn't understand why Fraser and Niles found him so terrible. I didn't even know where to begin, I was at a loss for words.
The real horror, for those of us who love Shakespeare, is that that hideous declamatory style of performing that Derek Jacobi parodies so beautifully in this episode was in fact the norm for nearly two centuries. This was due in large part to the fact that the two largest and most prestigious theaters in London -- Command Central for English-language classical acting -- were Drury Lane and Covent Garden. After they were both rebuilt in the 18th century, Drury Lane seated 3611 people, and Covent Garden 3000. (To put that in perspective: the largest Broadway theater for the past fifty years has been the Gershwin, with a capacity of 1933.) Subtleties of any kind, whether in voice or facial expression, would have been utterly lost in such caverns. This is why American actors like James O'Neill, William Forrest, Edwin Booth, and John Barrymore, who acted in far smaller venues, did so much to revolutionize Shakespearean production for the better, by making it more realistic, and thus more expressive. But the old ways, like King Charles II, were an unconscionable long time a-dying. The worst offender in the 20th century was Maurice Evans (today chiefly remembered for playing Samantha's father on "Bewitched"). Evans occasionally recited Shakespeare on "Bewitched"; and perhaps the best commentary on it was an episode where Samantha went upstairs to get her infant daughter. "Come along, dear. Your grandfather's said that, if you're good, he'll recite 'Macbeth' to you after dinner." (Long pause) "ALL of it." (Long pause) "You LUCKY girl."
Thank you for that most informative post. I so loved Jacobi's performance in Frasier - a great actor acting as a bad actor who thinks he is a great actor. It was sheer brilliance. One can see other actors on occasion struggling to keep a straight face at his brilliant performance as a bad actor.
@@jimduffy7199 Thank you for your kind comment. I had the GREAT pleasure of seeing Derek Jacobi play Cyrano some years ago (at the Gershwin!). Cyrano is a large-scale bravura part, that requires a large-spirited leading man, and by God, did it get one in Sir Derek! When I say "large-spirited", I most emphatically do NOT mean "ham"; I mean what used to be called "heroic acting": that miracle that occurs when a man or woman shows an audience just how titanic human beings at their greatest can be. (Years later I saw Helen Mirren play Racine's Phedre, to the same gut-punching effect.) The kind of overdone, exaggerated declamation that Jacobi did on "Frasier" reminds me of a review that the late Kenneth Tynan wrote of a similarly overwrought actor as King Lear: "Mr. X played the King as though fearful that, at any moment, someone was going to play the ace."
This was always one of my favorite episodes. I grew up in a small town with a pretty lively community theater scene and I probably knew a dozen Jackson Hedley's growing up. Passionate actors who had absolutely no idea how awful they were. 😂
Jackson Hedley reminds me a bit of Alan Rickman's character in Galaxy Quest. A Shakespearean actor who after getting a role on a popular Sci Fi TV show was only well known for that from that point on.
I've been a fan of Sir Derek since I saw him in I, Claudius on PBS years ago. I saw him in 1984 in NYC as Benedick in the RSC production of Much Ado About Nothing, and the lead in Cyrano de Bergerac. I saw each show several times over several trips, and I got to meet him after the shows. He could recite his ABCs, and I'd buy a ticket! I love anything/everything he's in!!!
Derek Jacobi is BRILLIANT!!! having seen him really play Hamlet only makes this even funnier. He is the best. this is also the best Frasier episode because of him.
DavidRichardLord Do it! I saw his Hamlet 3 times in London and twice at Elsinore. Absolutely fantastic, but that was MANY years ago. He is performing at Donmar Warehouse now and it is killing me that I cannot go(I live in Denmark).
This is one of my “rainy day” Frasier episodes- no matter what type of long day I have had, I know I will start giggling myself to tears with this episode! And yes, as everyone has already said, the fact that this is the very Hamlet Legend himself makes it about a million times funnier❤😂🙏
I would love to see this on stage. It’s a guarantee people won’t fall asleep watching his take on Shakespeare. Jacobi won a Primetime Emmy for his guest appearance on Fraser.
You can find the episode amidst the episodes on the Frasier DVDs for sale in the bookstore or for rent from a DVD rental service. More of this episode used to be here; it is no longer. A copyright lawyer's cease&desist letter to that poster & RU-vid would be one helluva good reason why that is true. I'm looking forward to renting this episode!! You're right: Sir Derek is a PHENOMENAL actor (he's a nice human being, too).
He's done PILES of comedy, though mostly onstage (what that man did with his ears and two chairs in _Much_Ado_About_Nothing_ was hysterical; pity the RSC never filmed that production). This is one of the best, though.
Many thanks for posting -and thanks to Bill Shakespeare! Without him Sir Derek (amongst other great actors) couldnt "do the Hamlet" in this really entertaining manor.
Sir Derek isn't copying himself BUT sending up Larry and some hack Shakespearean interptations. Someone tell us which series and episode this is on. I want to rent Frasier JUST to see this hysterical episode. I was on the floor laughing. I love it!
I have a friend who genuinely believes that this performance was so good it killed Jacobi's chance of being big in America. That he was so convincing as a bad actor that producers actually believed it and that's why he didn't end up getting big Hollywood roles later on the way his contemporaries like Ian McKellen and Christopher Lee did. I don't necessarily agree but I think it's an interesting theory. And it would be quite ironic that an episode riffing on the phenomenon of classically trained British actors becoming American Sci-fi icons would be the very thing that prevented Jacobi from going down that route.
I managed to find the episode on some obscure, seemingly chinese page. It took more than 1½ hour to download, and if I wanted to watch it again, I would have to start all over, - so I did´nt. The point is, that this scene is the absolute gem of the whole episode. Not that it wasn´t funny troughout, ... It was...., but many of the jokes seemed a little far fetched sometimes, - as if there had been spent a huge amount of willpower on designing scenes for a first and foremost classical actor.
By the way speaking of Alan Rickman (which I did in my last comment), he has the same birthday as Kelsey Grammer, February 21st. Alan was born in 1946 and Kelsey was born exactly 9 years later in 1955.
I can picture the director saying: 'OK. We need your character to recite Shakespeare..................but badly. So we were thinking...." Derek Jacobi: 'Got it!' Director: '....Ummm.....we think it.....' Derek: 'No. I've got it! Roll camera....' Director: 'OK.....Places, everybody!......Annnnnnnd.....ACTION!' Derek: "EEEAAAUUGGGHHHHH!'