David Harewood: Return to Othello

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 27 October 2025

⏱️ 27 minutes

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Summary

The espionage TV series, Homeland, brought David Harewood international fame but he is also known as the first Black actor to play Othello at the UK’s National Theatre when he was in his early 30s. Now, aged almost 60, he is reprising the role of the Moor in Shakespeare’s tragedy. The character of Othello is a skillful General, and the only person of colour in the Venetian army. He and Desdemona, the daughter of a rich and prominent citizen, fall in love and marry, against her father’s wishes. This autumn’s production at the Haymarket Theatre in London’s West End is directed by Tom Morris, who co-created War Horse, which has been seen by more than eight million people around the world. Caitlin Fitzgerald stars as Desdemona and Toby Jones as Iago, with music by P J Harvey. Julian May follows David Harewood, Tom Morris and the cast from the beginning of rehearsal to the opening night as they work together to bring to light the dark themes of power, rage and desire in Shakespeare’s great play of duplicity, jealousy and deadly masculinity.

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, radio, podcasts.
0:07.0	Welcome to the documentary in the studio from the BBC World Service.
0:12.7	I'm Julian May at the stage door of the Theatre Royal Haymarket,
0:17.3	one of the most beautiful and impressive playhouses in the West End, London's Theatre District.
0:23.5	When you hear this programme, a new production of Shakespeare's tragedy, Othello, would just have opened.
0:30.1	It will run until the middle of January next year.
0:33.5	Othello is Shakespeare's only play in which the main character is a person of colour.
0:39.6	David Harewood, Hollywood star of Homeland and Blood Diamond, is Othello.
0:45.2	He was the first black actor to play the role at Britain's National Theatre back in 1979.
0:51.8	I'm obviously familiar with the sort of emotional map of the play,
0:55.5	but what I'm finding now is when always has to go back to the text.
1:00.9	Caitlin Fitzgerald, who is in succession, is Desdemona,
1:05.1	Othello's young, white wife.
1:07.9	Theatre is like a marathon, and you have to be like a Jedi about your nutrition and your sleep
1:13.6	and all that boring self-care stuff because otherwise you just can't sustain it.
1:19.5	Toby Jones plays Yago who brings about Othello's downfall.
1:24.5	We decided that he felt profoundly snubbed. That was going to be the motor of his revenge.
1:34.3	Jones played Mr Bates in the television drama Mr Bates versus the post office. It had such an impact.
1:41.4	The government made new laws to clear the victims and compensate them.
1:46.7	And it made Toby Jones one of the country's best-loved actors.
1:51.0	The director is Tom Morris, who won a Tony Award for the theatre show War Horse
1:56.4	that has been seen by more than 8 million people around the globe.
	...

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