Remembering St. Crispin’s Day with Tom Hiddleston

I like this. I really, really like this.

This Hollow Crown setting is a great deal quieter (and feels more sorrowful) than Bombastic Branagh’s version, which I have long loved (and will continue to love) dearly. And it  lacks the spectacular musical spine Patrick Doyle provides for Branagh’s Harry.

But the quietness is incredibly powerful — perhaps even more powerful than any number of the more “traditionally” cinematic/stagey versions. And Hiddleston is extraordinary, even in that short clip. It deserves to be better known, methinks.

This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered-
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs’d they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.

Attribution(s): All artwork, publicity images, and stills are the property of PBS.org and all respective creators and/or distributors.