William Wordsworth Movies & TV

Clouds of Glory: William and Dorothy (1976)

Filmmaker Ken Russell made a pair of films centering on Wordsworth and Coleridge, the twin stars of Romantic poetry. The first focused on the unusually intense relationship between William and his sister Dorothy. This film suggests, as have other biographers, that there may have been an incestuous element to the pair's attachment. We aren't buying it.

Clouds of Glory: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1978)

The second film from Russell focuses on Samuel Taylor Coleridge, one of the most colorful characters in literary history. The film looks at his ravaging drug addiction, which cost him his career and his health.

Pandaemonium (2000)

This film from director Julien Temple is about the friendship between Wordsworth and Coleridge. It is set during the period when Coleridge wrote the epic poem "Kubla Khan" while battling his addiction to opium. The beautiful set helps you understand why the Romantics found nature so inspiring.

The Romantics (2006)

This BBC miniseries chronicles the drama-filled lives of the English Romantics. David Threlfall plays Wordsworth.

Monty Python's Flying Circus (1969)

There's more than one reference to William in this sketch comedy series. He appears once as himself, reading a poem dedicated to an ant "not named Marcus," and his name resurfaces again in an off-color door-to-door poetry reader.