Cecily Neville, Duchess of York Another book was published in 2014 titled Red Rose White Rose by Joanna Hickson. In 2016, Neville was portrayed by Dame Judi Dench in the BBC television mini-series "The Hollow Crown: The War of the Roses", in the third episode; which is based on William Shakespeare's play, Richard III. <br> Cecily Neville, Duchess of York Cecily Neville, Duchess of York (3 May 1415 – 31 May 1495) was an English noblewoman, the wife of Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York (1411–1460), and the mother of two kings of England, Edward IV and Richard III. Cecily Neville was known as "the
Rodney Ackland in the 1980s, while ailing with leukaemia, Rodney Ackland rewrote aspects of this play, re-titling it "Absolute Hell". It was put on in its new form in 1988 to considerable success at the Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond-upon-Thames, directed by Sam Walters and John Gardyne, and starring Polly Hemingway and David Rintoul. In 1991 it was adapted and directed for BBC Television by Anthony Page, starring Dame Judi Dench, and the play was revived by Page at the Royal National Theatre in 1995, again with Dench in the leading role. See also Nick Smurthwaite's theatre profile of Ackland for The Stage,