Cultural depictions of Henry IV of England

Henry IV of England has been depicted in popular culture a number of times.

Literature

Almost two hundred years after his death, Henry became the subject of two plays (or one two-part play) by William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part 1 and Henry IV, Part 2, as well as featuring prominently (as Bolingbroke) in Richard II. As the Earl of Derby, he is also a character in Gordon Daviot's play Richard of Bordeaux.

He is also a main character in Sara Douglass's The Crucible Trilogy, a work of historical fiction.

Film

Henry has been portrayed on screen by:

• Ian Keith in The Black Shield of Falworth (1954), with Tony Curtis
• John Gielgud in Chimes at Midnight (1965), a merger of several Shakespeare plays

Television

Henry has been portrayed a number of times on television, mainly in versions of Shakespeare's plays. In this context he has been played by:

• Clement McCallin in a BBC version of The Tragedy of King Richard II (1950)
• Kent Smith in an American version of Richard II (1954)
• Tom Fleming in the BBC series An Age of Kings (1960), which contained all the history plays from Richard II to Richard III
• Erik Hell in Henrik IV (1964), a Swedish version of Henry IV
• Hartmut Reck in König Richard II (1968), a West German version of Richard II
• Timothy West in another BBC version of The Tragedy of King Richard II (1970)
• Sándor Lukács in II. Richárd (1976), a Hungarian version of Richard II
• Jon Finch in the BBC Shakespeare version of King Richard the Second (1978) and both parts of Henry IV (1979)
• Michael Cronin in the BBC series The Wars of the Roses (1989), which included all of Shakespeare's history plays performed by the English Shakespeare Company
• Nikolai Lavrov in Richard Vtoroi (1992), a Russian version of Richard II
• Ronald Pickup in a BBC film, Henry IV (1995), a version of Henry IV, Part 1
• Richard Bremmer in a British TV film, Richard II (1997)
• Veit Schubert in another German version of Richard II (2001)
• Liam Brennan in another BBC film, Richard II (2003), broadcast live from the Globe Theatre in London

Henry has also been played on television by:

• Ralph Truman in a BBC adaptation of Richard of Bordeaux (1938)
• John Arnatt in another BBC adaptation of Richard of Bordeaux (1955)

Video

• Henry was played by Barry Smith in a straight-to-video film adaptation of Shakespeare's Richard the Second (2001).
• Paul Shenar played him in an American video Richard II (1982), in an Elizabethan style stage production of the play.