A Midsummer Night's Dream - Coming To BBC1

It's not exactly the first time the BBC have adapted Shakespeare's works for their channels with the likes of Hamlet and Richard II appearing in recent and now, A Midsummer Night's Dream will be popping up.

The comedy will be adapted into a 90 minute movie for BBC1 by Russell T. Davies, as announced by the channel’s controller Charlotte Moore revealed at the Edinburgh Television Festival this week. The former Doctor Who showrunner, whose recent hits have included drama Cucumber and Banana will produce a “truthful version of the play - the original play, the original words, the original Shakespeare" with Moore adding it would be "warm and funny" and "will have as much attitude and invention as any theatrical interpretation.”

The interesting thing also revealed about this adaptation (which has yet to be cast) is that Russell will be working with the Doctor Who team himself in Cardiff as the adaptation will have a riot of prosthetics, CGI, magic and action. With growing rumours of there not being a full series of the popular BBC1 next year, at least the team will have something to do next year.

With no further information on upcoming drama, The Boys (which Davies is meant to be doing for Channel 4) for now, it's nice to see that Russell will be back in Cardiff and working with the old/new team. One can only hope that while he's there, he might get some inspiration for reviving another series of his that last aired in 2011. As for the casting - you just know that both RTD and BBC1 are going to get the big guns for this adaptation.

Press Release: http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2015-08-26/russell-t-davies-to-bring-doctor-who-magic-to-a-midsummer-nights-dream-adaptation-for-bbc1

Production for A Midsummer Night's Dream begins in the next few weeks and will air in 2016 on BBC1.