The friends of the early scenes, Gregory Fox-Murphy's young Richard Rich and Paul Shelley's Duke of Norfolk were, by the end, denouncing him and sending him to an early meeting with the axe man. It was apparently More's destiny to be betrayed by almost everybody that he met. Farnsworth likes heights, as the best of his scenic adventures, a large portrait of the King and his coat of arms, both fly in from on high. Strangely, the occupants of More's house make their entrances and exits from fully twenty feet above his living room. The lights come up on Paul Farnsworth's lavish set, featuring wood panelling walls, and above these, much golden ornamentation. This version of More's story focuses on the political and diplomatic aspects of his life, once he had become a knight and in the period when he was promoted to and then gave up his role as Lord High Chancellor. However, if he did not have the same name, one would hardly know that this was the same man as the jovial fellow taking the lead in the RSC production named after him. Strangely, this is also the second play of a year that is a week old, which features Thomas More as its protagonist. Unfortunately for him, comparisons are inevitable and next to such a great actor, he was always going to struggle. The 2006 version is selling on the back of a big TV name, Martin Shaw, who is now famous as Judge John Deed, having come to fame in The Professionals in the 70s. A Man for All Seasons is best remembered for the film version from the 1966 which starred Paul Scofield as Sir Thomas More.
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