NARRATOR: In the morning sun the island with no name is a beautiful, sweet-smelling,music-filled place. But the miserable survivors don’t notice that as theycrawl onto the beach. Ariel has done his job well, landing them all verydeliberately on different parts of the island.
Prospero slips on his invisibility cloak - yes, really! - and joins Ariel ina morning inspection of his catch. First up - the courtiers. They’ve onlybeen on dry land five minutes and already they’re bickering about who’sin charge. Top of the heap - King Alonso of Naples. He’s the villain wholent his army to Antonio so he could steal Prospero’s kingdom. Does heregret it? Not a bit. So why’s he looking miserable? Because his onlyson Ferdinand - a bit of a wimp, it has to be said - seems to be dead,drowned in the shipwreak.
Just behind King Alonso is his brother, Sebastian. Now he’s miserablebecause he always wanted to be King of Naples. Next to Sebastian ishis mate, Antonio. And we all know about Antonio, don’t we? Prospero’sbrother: the one who stole his dukedom. A cooler, nastier, more ruthlessman in tights could not be imagined.
Just behind him there’s old, white-haired, Gonzalo. He’s nice enough -remember he gave Prospero his books all those years ago? - but, really,he does love the sound of his own voice.
Prospero inspects them carefully, coldly. ‘Who else did we catch?’‘Take a look,’ says Ariel. And off they go to another beach.There on the sand, snoring, is an ugly young man in jester’s outfit. ‘That’sTrinculo,’ says Ariel.
‘And what’s that?’ asks Prospero, pointing to another snoring figure,wrapped around a beer barrel which goes floating past on the tide.‘That’s his mate, Stephano,’ says Ariel.
‘Never heard of them,’ says Prospero. ‘They’ll have to look after themselves. Where’s Ferdinand?’
‘This way,’ says Ariel. And they whizz themselves to the far side of the isle.There…sitting under a tree, snuffling…is the young prince of Naples:Ferdinand.
PROSPERO: I really can’t stand snuffling. What’s wrong with him?
ARIEL: He thinks his father’s dead. Fully five fathoms under the sea.
PROSPERO: Hmmph. I didn’t notice much snuffling when they sent me off in a boat allthose years ago.
ARIEL: I don’t think you can blame Ferdinand. He was only three at the time.
PROSPERO: I’ll blame who I like. Now you get down there and put him through thewringer a bit.
ARIEL: The wringer?
PROSPERO: That’s right. I want to see him really cry.
ARIEL: I thought you were a good wizard.
PROSPERO: Hmm. Wizard is as wizard does. Now, do your stuff, then take him up tothe cave. I have a little plan to work on…
Video summary
The survivors of the shipwreck crawl onto the beach.
Prospero surveys all from the secrecy of his invisibility cloak.
First he inspects the courtiers, who have been washed up together on one beach.
They're all throughly miserable and bickering about who should be in charge.
King Alonso is particularly upset - he thinks his son, Ferdinand, has perished in the storm.
Then Ariel shows Prospero two more of the passengers - Trinculo and Stephano - who have been washed up together on another part of the island.
Trinculo is a jester and Stephano his friend.
Finally Ariel shows Prospero Ferdinand, who hasn't drowned, but who is feeling upset because he assumes the other passengers - including his father - have.
Prospero's plan is coming together nicely…
Teacher Notes
This series provides various opportunities to meet Key Stage 2 National Curriculum requirements, including study of a significant author, reading techniques such as prediction, drawing inferences, clarification and summary; and drama and writing opportunities - including poetry performance, descriptive writing, persuasive writing, letter writing, newspaper article writing, poetry and play scripts.
It could be used as an introduction to the play, consolidation of key aspects or for revision of the plot and characters.
More detail on how to use this series, including detailed lesson plans, can be found in the Teacher's Notes PDF.
This series is relevant for teaching English at KS2, in England and Wales and Northern Ireland, and at Second Level in Scotland.
Episode 2 - Set me free. video
Prospero explains to daughter, Miranda, how the two of them came to live on the island
Episode 4 - Toledo steel. video
Antonio sees an opportunity - if he can persuade Sebastian to murder King Alonso
Episode 5 - Barracuda. video
Stephano and Trinculo fall in with Caliban...and plan a revolution for the island.
