November marks 400 years since arguably the greatest work of English literature was created, the First Folio, published seven years after the death of William Shakespeare and without which much of his work would have been lost for future generations to enjoy today.

The BBC is celebrating this extraordinary anniversary with an ambitious season of content across TV, Radio, BBC iPlayer & BBC Sounds exploring why, 400 years on, Shakespeare’s relevance and influence is as strong as ever. A wealth of programming featuring major actors and leading experts, including new documentaries, performance, music, drama, comedy, news coverage and the best of the BBC archive, as well as special items on flagship BBC shows, will celebrate the man, his world and his timeless writing.

Here’s how you can watch, listen and learn about Shakespeare across the BBC…

TV & BBC iPlayer

Shakespeare: Rise of A Genius

This gripping three-part documentary series for BBC Two and iPlayer features an A-list cast of actors, including Dame Judi Dench, Dame Helen Mirren, Brian Cox, Adrian Lester, Lolita Chakrabarti, Martin Freeman and Jessie Buckley, alongside academics and writers James Shapiro, Jeanette Winterson, Lucy Jago , Jeremy O’Harris and Ewan Fernie – who provide fresh insights into the incredible story of our greatest writer, the place and time he inhabited and the work he produced.

• Watch Shakespeare: Rise of A Genius on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer from Wednesday 8 November

Archive Shakespeare Performances

BBC Four features a star-studded selection of archive performances with specially filmed introductions from David Tennant on Hamlet, Sir Richard Eyre on King Lear, Dame Janet Suzman on Wars of the Roses, Gregory Doran on the Shakespeare Gala from the RSC, Russell T Davies on A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Dame Helen Mirren on As You Like It, Hugh Quarshie on Othello, Steven Berkoff on Hamlet at Elsinore and Sir Simon Russell Beale on The Hollow Crown.

There are number of acclaimed performances of Shakespeare’s greatest plays including Hamlet from the Bristol Old Vic featuring rising star Billy Howle in the title role; Henry V from Shakespeare’s Globe with Jamie Parker in the lead role; the RSC’s Henry VI Part 1 with Sir Antony Sher in the role of Falstaff; and the RSC’s Much Ado About Nothing.

• Watch Hamlet (2009) starring David Tennant and Patrick Stewart below.

• Watch The Wars of the Roses (1966) starring Ian Holm, John Barton, Donald Sinden, Janet Suzman and Peggy Ashcroft below.

• Watch Shakespeare Live! From the RSC below.

• Watch Much Ado About Nothing (2022) an afro-futuristic adaptation of one of Shakespeare’s best-loved romantic comedies below.

• A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2016) Russell T Davies’ television adaptation, starring Maxine Peake, Bernard Cribbins and Nonso Anozie below.

• Watch The Merchant of Venice (1972) – BBC adaptation, starring Maggie Smith, Frank Finlay and Charles Gray below.

• Watch Henry V from Shakespeare’s Globe with Jamie Parker in the title role below.

• Watch Othello produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company and starring Hugh Quarshie below.

• Watch As You Like It (1978) featuring Helen Mirren, Brian Stirner and Richard Pasco, introduced by Helen Mirren below.

• Watch Macbeth (1983) featuring Nicol Williamson, Jane Lapotaire and James Bolam below.

• Watch Hamlet – a new performance from Bristol Old Vic, featuring Billy Howle, directed by John Haidar below.

• Watch Hamlet at Elsinore (1964) featuring early performances from Christopher Plummer, Michael Caine and Donald Sutherland below.

If all those aren’t enough for you, Celia Imrie takes a trip through the BBC archive in Talking Shakespeare, which pulls together insights from leading acting talent, from Peter O’Toole to David Tennant, on their experience of performing Shakespeare.

• Watch Talking Shakespeare on BBC iPlayer below.

This Cultural Life

And Dame Judi Dench, one of Britain’s foremost Shakespearean actors of the post-war era, is in conversation with John Wilson on This Cultural Life.

• Watch This Cultural Life – Judi Dench Shakespeare Special on BBC iPlayer below.

Shakespeare Films

Thursday Film Club has been taken over Shakespeare adaptations including

• Richard III (1956) starring Laurence Olivier below.

• Julius Caesar (1953) starring Marlon Brando below.

• All is True (2018) starring Kenneth Branagh and Judi Dench below.

Shakespeare Sonnets

Shakespeare’s Sonnets: A Modern Love Story features actors Rose Ayling Ellis, Eben Figueiredo, Eloka Ivo and Ioanna Kimbook performing a collection of sonnets in a fresh and innovative way.

• Watch Shakespeare’s Sonnets: A Modern Love Story on BBC iPlayer below.

Simon Schama’s Shakespeare

Simon Schama argues that it is impossible to understand how Shakespeare came to belong ‘to all time’ without understanding just how much he was of his time.

• Watch Simon Schama’s Shakespeare on BBC iPlayer below.

The Hollow Crown

The Hollow Crown series 1 and 2 are available to watch on BBC iPlayer and there’s also a reflection from Sir Simon Russell Beale, who looks back on the BBC’s 2012 adaptations of Shakespeare’s history plays: Richard II, Henry IV Part 1, Henry IV Part 2 and Henry V.

Bringing together a stellar cast that includes Ben Whishaw, Jeremy Irons, Judi Dench, Hugh Bonneville and Sophie Okonedo, The Hollow Crown drew huge praise from critics, and Simon’s acclaimed performance in the role of Falstaff ultimately earned him a Bafta award for Best Supporting Actor.

• Watch The Hollow Crown on BBC iPlayer below.

• Watch Sir Simon Russell Beale Remembers… The Hollow Crown on BBC iPlayer below.

Upstart Crow

The first series of the comedy about William Shakespeare returns to BBC Two on 8 November and is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.

The series follows Shakespeare (David Mitchell) as he starts to make a name for himself in London while also trying to be a good husband and father for his family in Stratford-upon-Avon.

• Watch Upstart Crow on BBC iPlayer below.

CBeebies & CBBC

There’s Shakespeare fun for all the family across CBeebies and CBBC.

• Check out the CBeebies Loves Shakespeare collection on BBC iPlayer below.
• Learn more about Shakespeare on the CBBC website below.
• Celebrate Shakespeare Day the CBBC way below.

Radio & BBC Sounds

BBC Radio 4

In a special episode, Radio 4’s hit history podcast You’re Dead To Me explores the life, work and legacy of William Shakespeare.

Host Greg Jenner and his guests explore what we know of the man behind the work in front of a live audience at Shakespeare North Playhouse in Prescot, Merseyside. Greg will be joined by Farah Karim-Cooper, Professor of Shakespeare Studies at King’s College London, and the comedian and writer, Richard Herring.

• Listen to You’re Dead To Me: Shakespeare Special on BBC Sounds below.
And Judi Dench is John Wilson’s guest on This Cultural Life. She talks about her formative influences and the experiences that led her to become one of the greatest Shakespearean actors of our age, and why she still regards Shakespeare as the guiding force of her creative life.

• Listen to This Cultural Life on BBC Sounds below.

Front Row – Wednesday 8 November – 7.15pm-8pm

1623 Review Show, presented by Tom Sutcliffe. Front Row’s panel of guests make a change from their usual review of the week’s arts and instead go back in time and review the music, poems and plays from the year that the First Folio was published.

First Folio – Saturday 11 November -3pm-4pm

A comedy-drama to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the publication of the ‘definitive’ work that made Shakespeare’s reputation. Writer Mike Harris imagines the process of publishing the First Folio. Produced by Brill Productions for BBC Radio 4.

BBC Radio 3

Shakespeare Day

From 7am to 7pm on 8 November, immerse yourself in music inspired by Shakespeare. Every work broadcast on Radio 3 over 12 hours will have a Shakespearean connection.

A rich variety of music has been created in response to Shakespeare’s words across the ages – composers have set his texts in songs and opera, written incidental music to his plays, and created dramatic orchestral, choral, ballet music and film scores. Some of classical music’s greatest figures – Purcell, Prokofiev, Mendelssohn, Shostakovich, Verdi, Britten and Berlioz have created works in homage to Shakespeare. Spend the day with Radio 3 in their company – Breakfast, Essential Classics, Composer of the Week, Afternoon Concert and In Tune will be dedicated exclusively to music with strong links to Shakespeare.

And throughout the day, there will be live short readings of some of Shakespeare’s most inspiring lines, by Paterson Joseph and Niamh Cusack.

Breakfast: Petroc Trelawny presents Radio 3’s classical breakfast show with music inspired by Shakespeare that captures the mood of the morning. With music by Debussy, Purcell, Britten, Sullivan and Weber.

Essential Classics: Georgia Mann includes music by Beethoven, Korngold, Dvorak, Vaughan Williams and Tchaikovsky, all inspired by Shakespeare.

Composer of the Week: Berlioz and Shakespeare. All week, Donald Macleod concentrates on Berlioz’s life-long passion for Shakespeare. In today’s programme, Berlioz reconnects with Shakespearean actor Harriet Smithson and works on a new symphony based on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.

Lunchtime Concert: Sarah Walker presents Shakespeare-inspired chamber music including Beethoven’s ‘Ghost’ Trio with its eerie second movement reminiscent of Banquo’s ghost in Macbeth, his Tempest Sonata, and Brahms’s 5 Orphelia-Lieder.

Afternoon Concert: Penny Gore includes music from Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream and two different compositions on Macbeth by Sullivan and Verdi.

In Tune: Katie’s guests include composer Nigel Hess who talks about writing music to Shakespeare’s plays, and Trio Gaspard perform live in the studio.

Plus later in the evening, Radio 3 in Concert includes extracts from Prokofiev’s Romeo & Juliet, and Free Thinking discusses Shakespearean inspiration in other art forms.

Free Thinking: Shakespeare as inspiration

Matthew Sweet is joined live by guests Professor Preti Taneja – author of a novel We That Are Young which sets the King Lear in Delhi, by Dr Iain Smith who studies films from around the world, by Research Fellow Michelle Assay who has studied Shakespeare, music and Hamlet in Russia, and by Andrew Dickson, journalist and author of Worlds Elsewhere: Journeys Around Shakespeare’s Globe. Free Thinking looks at paintings by the Pre-Raphaelites, at films from Bollywood and Japan, and at the way Shakespeare’s plays resonate in political hot spots and conflict zones across the world from South Africa to Ukraine.

BBC Teach Shakespeare Collection

BBC Teach has a collated collection of resources for primary and secondary schools to mark the anniversary, including a new nine-part video animation of Romeo and Juliet for primary schools.

•Check out the BBC Teach Shakespeare Collection