The Shakespeare Sessions

Toby Jones on playing the boisterous and fun-loving knight Falstaff. Toby Jones stars as Falstaff in our full-length version of Henry IV Part 1, which you can find in your podcast feed.

Rebellion is brewing in Britain.

King Henry must reunite his country but how when even his own family is divided?

As Henry's rule is threatened his son Hal appears unconcerned, wasting his time in the company of the comically corrupt Falstaff and common thieves, apparently more interested in play than the politics of state. Yet what kind of leadership is needed to unite the country might well be found in the taverns of Eastcheap as within the Palace of Westminster.

King Henry ..... Iain Glen Falstaff ..... Toby Jones Hal ..... Luke Thompson Hotspur ..... Tom Glynn-Carney Worcester .....Mark Bonnar Lady Percy .....Natalie Simpson Glendower ..... Steffan Rhodri Lady Mortimer ..... Bettrys Jones Westmoreland ..... Roger Ringrose Northumberland/Douglas ..... John Dougall Bardolph/ Sir Walter Blunt ..... John Lightbody Peto/Sherriff/Vernon ..... Sargon Yelda John/Mortimer ..... Chris Lew Kum Hoi Poins/Messenger ..... Hasan Dixon Mistress Quickly ..... Elizabeth Counsell

Written by William Shakespeare

Music composed by John Nicholls.

Adapted and directed by Sally Avens.

Khalid Abdalla, Matthew Needham and Cassie Layton star in Shakespeare's tragedy. This version is staged in an imagined near future, in which a power-hungry Turkish president attempts an attack on Cyprus. The western forces rush to Cyprus' defence, under the command of the fearless General Othello. But can an Arab-born, Christian convert ever be truly accepted by the people he serves?

Adapted and directed for radio by Emma Harding

You can listen to Dr Islam Issa giving us a quick rundown of events in the 1600s that influenced the character of Othello, in your podcast feed.

And don't forget to check out Looking for the Moor, also in your podcast feed, which sees Hugh Quarshie explore Othello and ask if the play is racist.

Cast

Othello.....Khalid Abdalla Iago.....Matthew Needham Desdemona.....Cassie Layton Cassio.....Max Bennett Brabantio.....Neil McCaul Roderigo.....Clive Hayward Duke of Venice.....Jessica Turner Montano.....Peter Polycarpou Emilia.....Bettrys Jones Lodovico.....Ian Conningham Bianca.....Heather Craney All other parts played by Sargon Yelda and Hasan Dixon

Dr Islam Issa, Senior Lecturer at Birmingham City University, gives us a rundown of events in the 1600s that influenced the character of Othello.

You can listen to our full-length version of Othello, set in an imagined near future, in your podcast feed.

A whistle-stop tour through Ancient Rome with writer and broadcaster Natalie Haynes.

Imagine where we'd be without Shakespeare's plays. It's difficult to contemplate now. But it was thanks to another man that many of them were brought to life.

Today, Richard Burbage is a not a household name. But he should be. He's the man for whom many of the great Shakespearean roles were created. One of the founding members of the Lord Chamberlain's Men, playing at the newly built Globe in 1599, he's one of the foundations upon which British theatre was built. Andrew Dickson talks to leading actors, rummages among the archives and dissects some of the greatest parts in acting to discover Burbage's crucial role - and realises that without Richard Burbage, there could be no Shakespeare.

Producer: Penny Murphy

Gareth Malone and Margaret Drabble on strength and nature

Zoe Wanamaker on the world of play and Jim Al-Khalili on staying rational.

Hugh Quarshie on Othello’s blackness. Is the character coherent? Is the play racist?

Hugh Quarshie is a Ghanaian-born British actor. He is a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company and played Othello in Iqbal Khan's production on the main stage of the RSC in the summer of 2015. But not without some soul searching.

He's not convinced that Shakespeare actually knew any black people and wonders if the persona of Othello is simply derived from literary and theatrical convention. He also suspects that if Shakespeare had little or no awareness of black people, his characterisation of Othello could be regarded as lazy; if he did, then his approach borders on bigotry and the role should be seen as a stereotype about which black actors should think twice.

It's a provocative starting point.

Producer: Roger Elsgood Originally an Art and Adventure production for BBC Radio 3.

David Hare and Martha Kearney on deviant psychology and fancy dress

Jools Holland on Falstaff & Kwame Kwei-Armah on falling in love with someone’s story

From London to Kent, Oxford, the Scottish borders, Suffolk, Nottinghamshire and across the channel to France, Emma Smith takes a road trip to learn more about how Shakespeare's First Folio helped create the Shakespeare we know and love today.

We take it for granted now that Shakespeare is our national poet, and his First Folio almost a religious relic, but it wasn't always so. Emma follows the story of seven of the 750 original copies of the First Folio to learn how Shakespeare's work spread across Britain and Europe, and how his reputation expanded in the hundred odd years between its publication in 1623 and the erection of his statue in Westminster Abbey in 1741.

She learns about Sir Edward Dering, a shopaholic young nobleman from Kent, the first documented purchaser of a First Folio, which he bought along with a scarlet suits, a pot of marmalade and a present for his baby son.

She hears about two real-life star-crossed lovers, Thomas and Isabella Hervey, from Ickworth in Suffolk, and examines the signatures they wrote in every copy of their shared library, including a First Folio.

She shares a hollow laugh with the current librarian of the Bodleian Library, which acquired a First Folio and then sold it.

She travels to St Omer in Northern France to see the most recently rediscovered copy and learn about the English Catholic schoolboys who may have performed extracts from it there.

Having viewed a range of First Folios (see related links for examples on display across the UK) Emma considers the spread outwards of Shakespeare's reputation and inwards, deep into our lives.

Emma Smith is Professor of Shakespeare Studies at Hertford College Oxford and the author of a new book on the First Folio.

Producer: Beaty Rubens.

Stephen Fry and Hilary Mantel bring us the Shakespearean speeches closest to their hearts

Prof. Emma Smith takes a closer look at Shakespeare's skills as a storyteller and how his plots, where the outcome is often signposted from the beginning, still hold audiences enthralled.

Benjamin Zephaniah and Rowan Williams share their favourite Shakespearean moments