“Live” filmed theatre is a tricky thing. It is neither one thing nor the other and, when it’s more other than anything else, its dichotomies are so glaring as to be unavoidably distracting.

The productions that come off worst are those when it is painfully obvious that whomever is in charge of the cameras wishes they were actually making a movie, or – unfortunately – doesn’t realise that’s not what filming live performance is about.

Much Ado About Nothing, NT Live, 2022. Photo © Manuel Harlan

This Much Ado About Nothing is one such. For starters, it’s a Shakespeare comedy, which generally means lots of broad brush strokes and at least a faceful of slapstick. And that doesn’t work in filmed close-up, because the actors are playing for a theatre audience, not a camera.  Everything they do must be bigger than suits a lens so, while it maybe Buster Keaton to a live audience, seen through that lens, it becomes Jerry Lewis and looks silly or fake or both.

Second, because of the multiplicity of characters and their placement across the stage (two in this corner,...