Don’t put Shakespeare on a pedestal, says Hamlet star

THE actor Andrew Scott says we should stop putting Shakespeare on a pedestal and treating him so reverentially.

‘If you make Shakespeare like eating your vegetables, people will go: “I don’t want to watch that!” ’ says Scott, who can be seen playing Hamlet on BBC2 tomorrow night, in a broadcast of director Robert Icke’s acclaimed Almeida Theatre production.

Tomorrow’s three-hour programme was filmed after the ubiquitous producer Sonia Friedman transferred the play to the Harold Pinter Theatre.

Scott also plays Edgar in Richard Eyre’s modern-day adaptation of King Lear, with Anthony Hopkins as the elderly monarch who divides his kingdom for his three daughters — played here by Emma Thompson, Emma Watson and Florence Pugh. It also features Jim Broadbent, Jim Carter, John MacMillan and Karl Johnson.

The two-hour film, a collaboration with producers Colin Callender, Ms Friedman and Noelette Buckley, will be shown on BBC2 in May — possibly as counter-programming to the royal wedding.

Scott complains: ‘Sometimes we talk about Shakespeare in a reverent way that we don’t use with other drama.’

The actor, who also appears in Sherlock, adds: ‘That’s why it’s brilliant you can find Shakespeare on TV. If it’s entertaining, and emotionally engaging, young people will watch it. Don’t make out like it’s some sort of punishment: that it’s virtuous if you watch Shakespeare.’