2. Prince Hamlet Hamlet
For some of us humble TV-watching folk who don't happen to live in London, the theatre can seem a world away. Oh sure, you could argue that the best productions go on tour so everyone outside the Big Smoke can see them, but still, if you happen to live in the netherworld between British cities, or perish the thought outside good old Blighty, you might not get to see these productions that apparently set the world on fire. So it was with Tennant's Hamlet. Despite an extensive touring run with the Royal Shakespeare Company, it was always to be expected that not everyone in the world would be able to see it. Those who didn't had to rely on ecstatic word-of-mouth and glowing critics reviews telling us that the erstwhile Scotsman was killing it as the Prince of Denmark, with some particularly effusive commentators speculating it was up there with Laurence Olivier's work. Now, that's a debate for another time, but the fact there's a debate to be had cements that Tennant must've been doing something right, even if we couldn't see it. So when we got to see the play brought to the small screen, we could judge for ourselves, and you know what? He made an excellent case. Starring alongside the original RSC supporting stage cast which included Patrick Stewart he exuded an unparalleled intensity, leaving you rapt at his soliloquys and astonished at the seething, demented physicality of it all. Watch the famous court fight scene and the many other times the Prince's life falls into the toilet and tell me this isn't a quality performance after all, there's a reason why critics have called him the finest Hamlet of his generation, and he's got stiff competition in that area.