The Bard ‘Uncovered’ on PBS

PBS will launch “Shakespeare Uncovered,” on Friday (10 p.m. on KCTS), a series of six documentaries about the Bard with notable guides like Sir Derek Jacobi, Ethan Hawke, Joely Richardson and Jeremy Irons.

“One of the reasons why Shakespeare still works, not just still works, but actually why Shakespeare shines as the greatest dramatist of all time is that he was writing about human condition, whether it be the comedies or the tragedies or the historical plays,” Irons said.

“That’s the setting. But, always, it’s about the specific thing of jealousy or of envy or of unrequited love or of a relationship between family members. It’s something which hasn’t changed. So when we see those plays now, they still speak to us with a resonance that many hundreds of plays written between Shakespeare’s time and today don’t.”