Apparently we beat France at rugby last night, and we seem to be getting rather good at it. Surprising since we’re now officially the most obese nation in Europe.
I was intrigued to read that ITV drafted in Geoffrey Streatfeild from the RSC to reprise his role as Henry V and get us all fired up with the Agincourt speech. Seems it did the trick. Is this the dawn of a new era as RSC seek new avenues to make the Bard relevant to contemporary society and its concerns?
Take the obesity crisis. A line in Hamlet comes to mind (okay, slightly tweaked). “Oh, that this too, too solid flesh would melt, Form and resolve itself into a dew.” The RSC endorses liposuction? Who could possibly bring off such a gig? He’d have to be skinny, sexy, high-profile, and ideally connected with Hamlet (scratches head).
Miranda's Island 
I’ve taught Henry V as a SATS set text to a class of low-achieving boys and got them to role play the pre-battle scenes as if they were managers and players at a football match. Worked a treat. I had kids who could barely even write quoting Shakespeare in the corridors to each other. It’s called thinking outside the box, I say… 😉