One thing that struck me (not mentioned by Heaney) was that the Chorus who steps in to give narrative background is explicitly identified with the medieval poet John Gower, and Wilkins actually tries to make him speak Middle English (Shakespeare doesn't try as hard). He must be the most intrusive Chorus in the canon, giving away the punchlines before they happen. Again, the casual reader of the script wonders what the heck is going on, but a stage production can play it for laughs.
Arkangel don't quite dare to do this with their Gower, who is Sir John Gielgud, aged 94. One gets a sense that the rest of the cast, led by Nigel Terry as Pericles (and with ex-vet Christopher Timothy as weak-willed Cleon) were trying to do a respectful performance. But the script doesn't really allow for that, and it's just as well.
One could not by any stretch of the imagination call Pericles a masterpiece, but it is very funny.
Henry VI, Part I | Henry VI, Part II | Henry VI, Part III | Richard III | Comedy of Errors | Titus Andronicus | Taming of the Shrew | Two Gentlemen of Verona | Love's Labour's Lost | Romeo and Juliet | Richard II | A Midsummer Night's Dream | King John | The Merchant of Venice | Henry IV, Part I | Henry IV, Part II | Henry V | Julius Caesar | Much Ado About Nothing | As You Like It | Merry Wives of Windsor | Hamlet | Twelfth Night | Troilus and Cressida | All's Well That Ends Well | Measure for Measure | Othello | King Lear | Macbeth | Antony and Cleopatra | Coriolanus | Timon of Athens | Pericles | Cymbeline | The Winter's Tale | The Tempest | Henry VIII | The Two Noble Kinsmen | Edward III | Sir Thomas More (fragment)