To Be or Not to Be

There's daggers in men's smiles. Ethan Hawke takes you along as he researches the part of Shakespeare’s murderous Macbeth.

All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players. Joely Richardson looks into a pair of cross-dressing comedies: Shakespeare's As You Like It and Twelfth Night.

You may my glories and my state depose, but not my griefs; still am I king of those. Derek Jacobi looks at Richard II and returns to a role he played 30 years ago: the story of a king who loses his crown.

He will give the devil his due. Jeremy Irons researches Shakespeare’s history plays as well as the differences between the real history and the father-son drama that Shakespeare creates.

To be, or not to be: that is the question. David Tennant meets fellow actors who’ve taken on Hamlet and compares notes on how to play a character that's been played, probably, a million different ways.

Hell is empty and all the devils are here. Trevor Nunn, acclaimed director of 30 of Shakespeare’s 37 plays, takes you through the otherworldly and supernatural The Tempest.