Jonathan Miller ends the BBC Taming of the Shrew with a Puritan hymn, and Kate's speech of submission is delivered in all seriousness. Miller believes that Shakespeare was a man of his time and that this play is about Kate's sacrificing personal liberty to the good order of society.
Nevertheless, the BBC has important strengths even for those who find this interpretation wrongheaded. The words are the thing, and violence between Kate and Petruchio is limited to Kate's striking Petruchio and his grasping her arm and later twisting it to prevent her leaving the room. He does not even carry her off stage after the wedding. Although Sarah Badel's Katherine is less fiery and beautiful than is traditional for the part, John Cleese's Petruchio makes his concern for her especially clear. Petruchio's confiding his strategy to the audience is given full weight both before his first meeting with Katherine and in his own home. Cleese's clever glances out at the television audience make it plain that his own shrewishness is mere performance and that his goal is not to subjugate Katherine but rather to educate her by showing in his own person a mirror of her behavior.
Nevertheless, the BBC has important strengths even for those who find this interpretation wrongheaded. The words are the thing, and violence between Kate and Petruchio is limited to Kate's striking Petruchio and his grasping her arm and later twisting it to prevent her leaving the room. He does not even carry her off stage after the wedding. Although Sarah Badel's Katherine is less fiery and beautiful than is traditional for the part, John Cleese's Petruchio makes his concern for her especially clear. Petruchio's confiding his strategy to the audience is given full weight both before his first meeting with Katherine and in his own home. Cleese's clever glances out at the television audience make it plain that his own shrewishness is mere performance and that his goal is not to subjugate Katherine but rather to educate her by showing in his own person a mirror of her behavior.