A variety show live from Stratford-upon-Avon and hosted by David Tennant will be at the heart of a 2016 BBC Shakespeare festival which will see the Bard all over the schedules and, organisers hope, make him “irresistible to everybody”.
The BBC’s director general, Tony Hall, has announced details of the festival to mark the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death.
It will include Horrible Histories sending Shakespeare up on CBBC; BBC1’s Countryfile exploring his landscapes; and the return of the lavish Hollow Crown film adaptations which this time will star Benedict Cumberbatch as Richard III and Judi Dench as his mother.
Ben Elton also returns to the BBC, writing his first historical sitcom since Blackadder. Called Upstart Crow, it will star David Mitchell as Shakespeare with Liza Tarbuck as his wife and Harry Enfield as his father.
Hall said the festival “brings to life what the BBC is all about. It embodies the inventive, ambitious and collaborative BBC that I hope and I know we all believe in. We want to make Shakespeare irresistible to everybody.”
Hall said many organisations were putting on shows and exhibitions this year and “our job at the BBC is to amplify that creative energy and use our reach and our services to bring” Shakespeare to as wide an audience as possible.
The season begins with Shakespeare Live! From the RSC, broadcast on the weekend of Shakespeare’s birthday, 23 April.
Tennant said it would be “a sort of variety bill” offering Shakespeare’s greatest hits as well as his influence on other art forms such as opera, ballet, hip-hop, jazz and comedy.
It will include appearances by Dench, Ian McKellen, Simon Russell Beale, the English National Opera and Birmingham Royal Ballet.
Tennant recalled his first Shakesepeare experience, seeing a company called Theatre Around Glasgow perform As You Like It at his school when he was 13. “I was blown away. I thought Touchstone was the coolest man I had ever seen.
“Through drama school and ever since then he has been a huge part of my life... these characters and stories are catnip for actors.”
BBC Radio 3 will also take up residency in Stratford during the same April weekend, premiering a new work by the poet laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, and a new King Lear starring Ian McDiarmid.
Television highlights will include the concluding part of The Hollow Crown history play series. The War of the Roses will have three new adaptations – Henry VI in two parts and Richard III – and also star Michael Gambon, Keeley Hawes and Sophie Okonedo.
More offbeat contributions will come from the comedy character Philomena Cunk, from Charlie Brooker’s Screenwipe, with Cunk on Shakespeare; and Gyles Brandreth on The One Show, tracking down living William Shakespeares.
