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Front Row: 400 years of Shakespeare with Rufus Wainwright, Kim Cattrall, Dominic Cooke and William Leahy

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22/04/2016

400 years of Shakespeare with Rufus Wainwright, Kim Cattrall, Dominic Cooke and William Leahy

BBC Radio 4 - Front Row, 400 years of Shakespeare with Rufus Wainwright, Kim Cattrall, Dominic Cooke and William Leahy

Shakespeare died 400 years ago this week. John Wilson marks this anniversary.

Shakespeare died 400 years ago this week. John Wilson marks the anniversary with director Dominic Cooke, musician Rufus Wainwright, actor Kim Cattrall and Professor William Leahy.

William Shakespeare takes centre stage 400 years after his death. As The Hollow Crown returns to BBC One with the next series of the playwright's history plays, theatre director Dominic Cooke discusses his TV directorial debut making the series. The cast of Henry VI Parts I and II and Richard III include Benedict Cumberbatch, Judi Dench and Hugh Bonneville.

Actor Kim Cattrall describes why she loves playing Cleopatra, as part of our series Shakespeare's People, in which celebrated actors choose the character they've enjoyed playing most.

Rufus Wainwright's new album Take All My Loves adapts nine of Shakespeare's sonnets into rock ballads, operatic pop songs and dramatic readings. The musician talks about his personal take on the playwright's poetic work.

Was Sir Henry Neville the real author of Shakespeare's works? A new book, Sir Henry Neville Was Shakespeare: The Evidence by John Casson and Professor William Rubinstein, provides fresh evidence supporting the claim. Professor William Leahy, Chair of the Shakespeare Authorship Trust, reviews the evidence.

Over the last two years, Ladi Emeruwa has played Hamlet in 197 different countries, travelling 180,000 miles in the process. He is one of a cast of 12 actors who have taken Shakespeare to all corners of the world from Bhutan to Belize and Cambodia to Cameroon. The tour reaches its climax this weekend when the final four performances take place at London's Globe theatre.

Presenter John Wilson
Producer Angie Nehring.

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