Is this an author I see before me? 'Anonymous' and the interminable Shakespeare question

Was Shakespeare a fraud? In a departure from his usual blockbuster fare, director Roland Emmerich proposes in 'Anonymous' that the relatively obscure Edward de Vere, the Earl of Oxford, was the true author of the Bard's oeuvre. Brian McFarlane considers a controversy that is seemingly without end, and discusses the relevance of authorship to the plays of Shakespeare - and to contemporary cinema.