BBC Television Shakespeare the distance is the backcloth, which is impressionistic." The backcloths were used to suggest locale without photographic representationalism; they imply air, water, sea, hills, a city, but never actually show anything specific. Geoff Feld won Best Cameraman at the 1981 BAFTAs for his work on this episode. The "Prefaces to Shakespeare" episode for "The Merchant of Venice" was presented by Timothy West who had played Shylock in a 1980 Old Vic production which he also directed. The "Shakespeare in Perspective" episode was presented by playwright and screenwriter Wolf Mankowitz. Cast In line with producer Jonathan Miller's aesthetic policy, director Elijah
Antonio (The Merchant of Venice) person … lie[s] all unlocked to your occasions" ("MoV" 1.1.146), seem to allude to a sexual dimension in Antonio's love for Bassanio. However, there is also evidence that the two shared a strictly fraternal, familial bond, as indicated by the line "Bassanio, your most noble kinsman …" ("MoV" 1.1.60) Other scholars maintain that all attempts to read Shakespeare's characters as gay or straight in terms of the modern understanding of the word are culturally and historically flawed. Alan Bray's book "Homosexuality in Renaissance England" argues that in the time period of "The Merchant of Venice's" composition, "homosexuality" did not refer