Doctor Who star David Tennant to reprise his role as Hamlet on BBC2
Tennant will be joined by fellow cast members from the Royal Shakespeare Company production, including Patrick Stewart
Caitlin Fitzsimmons
guardian.co.uk, Friday 29 May 2009 12.24 BST
David Tennant as Hamlet. Photograph: Ellie Kurttz/RSC
Doctor Who star David Tennant is set to reprise his role as Hamlet in a TV production of the play for BBC2.
Tennant will be joined by fellow cast members from the popular Royal Shakespeare Company production, including Patrick Stewart as Claudius.
BBC2 controller Janice Hadlow said the production was "a wonderful opportunity to bring one of the great stage successes of last year to a wider audience".
The RSC artistic director, Michael Boyd, added: "As the show was sold out for its entire run, this is a really great opportunity for our work to be seen by so many who could not come to the theatre and see it on stage."
The stage show, which ran at Stratford-upon-Avon and then London last year, was a sell-out success. Tennant was favourably reviewed for his portrayal of the Danish prince.
As well as Tennant as Hamlet and Stewart as Claudius, the entire cast of the RSC production will join him, according to Baz Bamigboye writing in today's Daily Mail. Penny Downie is to play Gertrude, Mariah Gale is reprising Ophelia and Edward Bennett will revive Laertes. Bamigboye added that Gregory Doran, who staged the play for the RSC, will shoot the film version on location.
Filming is set to start in June for broadcast on BBC2 later this year, with broadcasts in the US and Japan to follow in 2010.
Doran said: "Contrary to press reports at the time, the RSC always had plans to make a recording of this production but had the inevitable long journey in getting the cast together again and securing funding for this project.
"The Hamlet cast and the RSC are all really delighted that we now have the chance to share this show with audiences around the world, and I would like to thank all those involved in making this plan a reality at last."
This article was sent to me by a Doctor Who fan, so obviously the emphasis is on Tennant, but hopefully we'll get some interesting things about Patrick Stewart coming down the Trek pipeline.
As for Stewart, I love that he does everything from this to American Dad.
Thanks for the heads-up!
