Episode 1

Synopsis: First in a three-part docuseries on the life and work of William Shakespeare, combining interviews with drama vignettes.

1. 1587. William Shakespeare leaves the small rural town of Stratford to pursue his dreams of becoming a playwright in the dangerous, growing metropolis of London. Public theatre is red-hot modernity, and Shakespeare begins his journey at the very bottom. Inspired by the live fast, die young world he inhabits, he writes the schlock horror hit Titus Andronicus and a teenage romance where all the young people die: Romeo and Juliet.

The series features interviews with Dame Judi Dench, Brian Cox, Adrian Lester, Lolita Chakrabarti, Helen Mirren, Martin Freeman and Jessie Buckley, alongside academics and writers James Shapiro, Ewan Fernie, Jeanette Winterson, Brenda Hale, The Baroness Hale of Richmond, Gordon Brown, Jeremy O’Harris and Professor Farah Karim-Cooper. The series is narrated by Juliet Stevenson.
Series: Shakespeare: Rise of a Genius
Language: English
Country: Great Britain
Medium: Television
Technical information: Colour / Sound
Transmission details: 8 Nov 2023 at 21:00 (Channel: BBC2)
Duration: 59 mins

SHAKESPEARE