Ian McKellen And Judi Dench To Star In BBC Two's SHAKESPEARE LIVE!

With 2016 being the 400th Anniversary of the passing of William Shakespeare, theatre companies and arts organizations around the world are commemorating the event and celebrating his life and work with special events.

Great Britain is leading the way, naturally, and BBC Two is bringing out two of their nation's best loved actors to honor the country's best loved playwright. Ian McKellen and Judi Dench will star in an April 23rd broadcast of SHAKESPEARE LIVE! performed at the Royal Shakespeare Company.

They'll be joined by Joseph Fiennes, who played The Bard in his breakout film performance in SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE, along with the English National Opera, the Birmingham Royal Ballet, singer Ian Bostridge and poet/rapper Akala.

The broadcast is part of a wide range of Shakespeare-related programming BBC will present this year. BBC Radio 3 will take up residency in Stratford-upon-Avon from April 22 to 24, broadcasting new content from poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy and an adaptation of KING LEAR starring Ian McDiarmid.

BBC Two will have two new comedies: UPSTART CROW stars David Mitchell playing Shakespeare as a young, unknown actor, and CUNK ON SHAKESPEARE will star Diane Morgan as Philomena Cunk, the pseudo-intellectual feature reporter character she's made popular on CHARLIE BROOKER'S WEEKLY WIPE.

Sam Mendes will act as executive producer on BBC Two's THE HOLLOW CROWN: THE WAR OF THE ROSES, starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Judi Dench, Keeley Hawes, Sophie Okonedo, Hugh Bonneville, Sir Michael Gambon and Tom Sturridge and BBC One will present Russell T Davies' adaptation of A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM with Matt Lucas, Maxine Peake, John Hannah, Elaine Page, Richard Wilson and Bernard Cribbins.

BBC director general Tony Hall tells Digital Spy, "Shakespeare's in our DNA. For 90 years, we've been broadcasting his works to successive generations, but we've never done anything as daring, as adventurous as we're doing now.

"This year, we're bringing to life my vision of what the BBC's about; using all our services to make Shakespeare irresistible to everybody. And joining with some of our country's greatest institutions to bring their creativity to millions here and across the globe."

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