of shakespeare's fellow actors seven years after his death. it includes 18 plays that had never been printed before. plays like 12th night... what kind of man is he? ..the tempest... our revels now are ended. ..julius caesar... friends, romans, countrymen... ..and macbeth. stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more. these plays would all have been lost had it not been for the first folio. do you want me to do a clap? i am the bbc�*s culture editor, katie razzall, and i caught up with david during his rehearsals for macbeth and asked him about the role shakespeare's first folio has played in his life. the reason that shakespeare is the cultural colossus that he is is because that book was published. you know why we're here. it is 400 years since the first folio, and i wondered, as somebody steeped in shakespeare like you,

what does the first folio mean to you? well, i mean, it contains so many of the plays... ..that are the reason why shakespeare is the cornerstone of our cultural life in the way that he is. he simply wouldn't exist... ..as part of the kind of national conversation in the way that he does without the first folio. those... we would have lost so many of those plays. you know, i'm sitting here at the end of my first day of rehearsals for macbeth, a play that's been in performance now for over 400 years. but it wouldn't exist. we wouldn't have a copy of it. and even those that we did have, that we do have other sources for, the folio was the kind of...the prestige edition. and the reason that those plays are still performed around the world, the reason that shakespeare is the cultural colossus that he is, is because that book was published.

great glamis... ..worthy cawdor. greater than both, by the all—hail hereafter... let's take just macbeth. what would it have meant if macbeth, we'd never come across macbeth? david stammers it's hard to compute, isn't it? because... ..because we didn't. so it's there. and there are shakespeare plays that we have lost. there's at least two. there's cardinal and love's labour's won, which some people would say was actually a different title for much ado about nothing. who knows? we know these plays were performed and existed, and they didn't make it into the first folio for whatever reason. so we have lost some. who knows how many more we might have lost? so it's difficult to quantify. but, i mean, without the first folio, without macbeth, as you like it, the tempest, with only some of those plays surviving, would we have a royal shakespeare company? i'm not sure. would we have those great performances that have sort of defined what british theatre is?

this royal throne of kings... ..this scepter'd isle... ..this earth of majesty, this seat of mars. part of the reason that theatre is such a great export, is such a great industry for this country, is because it's sort of built on shakespeare. you know, we are, by dint of the fact that he was born in the midlands, we get to sort of be the experts on it, and that, you know, doesn't do us any harm. god save the king! will no man say "amen"? am i both priest and clerk? well, then, amen. chuckling god save the king! although i be not he... ..and yet, amen, if heaven do think him me. how did your love of

shakespeare evolve? i think sort of gradually, probably. i always wanted to be an actor, so i knew that there was something magical about shakespeare. i knew that people talked about it in the way that they talked about it. and i don't know that i necessarily understood that when i... i mean, macbeth was the first play that i studied for 0—levels. i got bits of why it was important, but it's... these plays exist to be experienced as a member of an audience, to be heard, to be taken on a journey by performers. and it's a hard ask, to be inspired. listen, my teacher was great, and i... i got a lot out of it, but it's almost a shame that the first experience of shakespeare is... ..is sitting in a classroom, kind of standing up, trying to mouth these words that don't sit in your mouth and don't necessarily make a lot of sense to you at the age of 14. and that's why a lot of people fall out of love with shakespeare before they've really had a chance to fall

in love with it. will you not tell me who told you so? no, you shall pardon me! laughter shakespeare didn't write them to be written down. thank goodness they were written down, and thank goodness the first folio exists and that we can re—experience them. but that was an unusual thing for... play texts at the time weren't something that you would necessarily expect to have on your book shelf. before that they existed and they were called quartos. they were these little sort of big bits of paper folded into quarters, and they were like pamphlets, and they weren't always necessarily the most faithfully reproduced texts. famously, there's, you know... hamlet did exist as a quarto, but, famously, it was, "to be, or not to be, ay, there's the point." not the line that we expect. again, that's what the first folio gave us. it gave us a sort of... ..an editor's version of what these plays should be, because otherwise they were just passed hand to hand. you know, actors at the time didn't get given full scripts. you got given your own lines, because it was...

somebody had to write it out by hand! so these plays kind of existed slightly ephemerally... ..because they're plays, because they're live events. and that's when they come to life, i think. to be, or not to be that is the question. when i was at school there was a company called theatre about glasgow, tag they were called, and they came and set up in our assembly hall and did as you like it. and that was the first time that i... ..can remember being transported by shakespeare, because it was live, and it was happening. and i didn't necessarily understand every word, and some of it felt perhaps a little unnatural and foreign to me. but there was something about that. and what were all the other kids doing? were they as transported as you? i wasn't looking at them, i was looking at the stage. i hope so! i mean, i certainly... tag were a huge force

in glasgow, and introduced generations of children to shakespeare, and found ways of making those plays connect with a modern audience. that's, you know, again, they're alive, and they should be alive, and they shouldn't be presented as things pickled in aspic. they should be presented as something that speaks to the world right now. thou marshall'st me the way that i was going, and such an instrument i was to use. mine eyes are made the fools o' the other senses, or else worth all the rest... ..i see thee still. the reason shakespeare is still performed, and is tenacious, is because he had a particular sense of what it is to be a human that he managed to write down. he was... ..he was a genius. we just have to kind of use that word, because he finds ways of expressing the human condition that are still fresh now. and there's something about...

..returning to shakespeare, that he seems to reflect the moment that the play is performed in. and obviously, that's not... ..there�*s nothing mystical about that. he just had a way of expressing the human experience, what it is to be inside a brain that allows us all to connect, and to see ourselves reflected and to understand each other. so it's about humanity and empathy. and he just had an ability for that that was unique. your face, my thane, is as a book... ..where men may read strange matters. yeah, i sanudi dench said, "any human emotion, "go to shakespeare, you'll find it there." yeah, it's true. and whenever you do these plays, they reflect the moment that they're being performed in, somehow. how does that work with your macbeth then? we just started it today, and when we first started talking about this production, it was with reference to mental health. and, you know, shakespeare's macbeth is a play about...it�*s about guilt, it's about trauma.

but now, of course, as we film this today, we're in a moment in the world where we're all thinking about war and violence and trauma. and as you read through the play today, you hear things in a way that you probably wouldn't have heard them three weeks ago. as i perchance hereafter shall think meet to put an antic disposition on. that you, at such times seeing me, never shall, with arms encumbered thus, or this headshake, or by pronouncing of some doubtful phrase as, "well, well, we know," or "we couldand if we would," or such ambiguous giving out, to note that you know aught of me! the late great david warner, i had the pleasure of talking to him about hamlet, which of course he did very famously whilst the vietnam war was on. and there's the speech where hamlet talks about witnessing an army marching, marching, going to war on an eggshell. and he said every night that was about the vietnam war, because we were all living through it. and every night that's

what the audience heard. you do that play now, they hear something else, but there's something about those words that are malleable and that are alive. get thee to a nunnery! why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners? i am myself indifferent, honest, and yet i could accuse me of such things it were best my mother had not borne me. what should such fellows as i do crawling between earth and heaven? we are arrant knaves, all, believe none of us. go thy ways to a nunnery! cctv mechanism adjusts where's your father? how do you inhabit a role yourself, making it your own, when you know it's been done by so many people before, and so many people who've done it well? yeah, it's a funny thing, because obviously the legacy of those roles is part of what's attractive. you know, the idea that you're being invited to stand next to these greats and sort of challenge yourself, test yourself against them and see if you've got something new to bring to that. so that's part of what's... if i'm honest, that's part of what's exciting about it. you know, they're almost like olympic events for actors, aren't they? but at the same time you have...

it's completely hopeless to be thinking about that too much in rehearsals, and you have to just kind of strip all that back and get back to these words, and try and experience them in that moment for that audience and for yourself every night, as if those thoughts are occurring to you for the first time. rememberthee! yea, from the table of my memory i'll wipe away all trivial fond records that youth and observation copied there, and thy commandment, allalone, shall live within the book and volume of my brain, unmixed with baser matter! yes, by heaven! i saw patrick stewart told... yeah. bear with me. 0k. patrick stewart told ralph fiennes... yeah. ..that ian mckellen gave him what he called a significant note about "tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow," saying the important word was "and". "tomorrow and tomorrow." yeah. agree? i mean, it's a very persuasive line reading. laughs i don't know. i don't want to make any... we're only on day one.

but i'm very happy if it turns out that that's what makes it resonate for me and for our production in that moment. i'm very happy to steal that, because, you know, mckellen knows what he's talking about. so does patrick. laughs distant gunfire and explosions tomorrow... distant gunfire ..and tomorrow... ..creeps in this petty pace from... ..day to day... ..do the last syllable of recorded time. have you had anyone give you notes about..? i don't mean the other director. i mean, has anybody in the build—up to you doing macbeth, given you notes saying, "do it like this"? specifically about that part? i mean, what's great is everyone�*s got an opinion about these plays, you know? and everyone has a viewpoint and a take on it. so it's quite good to canvass opinion and then sort of chuck it all away. and the more... the ideas that stick, the ideas that you don't sort

of brush off are probably the ones that are resonating with you, that are maybe worth exploring. but again, because there's... the words are so good, and they take a bit of, you know, they're not... they're 400 years old, and there's vocabulary that we don't use any more. and it's in verse. it doesn't immediately... you know, it takes a bit of taming. you have to wrestle with these words a little bit to get on the right side of them so that you are in charge of them rather than them being in charge of you. it is the bloody business that informs thus to mine eyes. thou sure and firm—set earth, hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear thy very stones prate of my whereabout. i go and it is done. as i start rehearsals, i would hope i know what everything means. i know sort of... i could give you a kind of modern—day translation of it all... ..but then you have to allow yourself to be surprised by the echoes and by the things that you weren't expecting, and by the connections that

you'll make as you live with something. well, that's true of any play and any rehearsal process, but it's particularly true of something that's written in verse, in language that's that sort of alive, and is poetry. you know, he was a poet who happened to put his poetry into plays. so all the words... there can be resonances and references, and there can be layers of meaning that can still surprise you ten weeks intoa run. you'll think on a sort of wet wednesday afternoon matinee, you'll suddenly go, "oh, that's what that line means." is this a dagger which i see before me? the handle toward my hand? and i think that's often why people return to these parts as well at different times in their life because who you are, you know, you never put your foot in the same river twice as it were, and who you are influences how those characters sort of speak back to you, i think. you know, there's obviously particularly famous lines

from macbeth, as there are from any play. mm. are those lines harder to say, or is it — you know, because we all know them, or do you get to that bit where you're like, "i'm going to say this now"? how does it work? it's a bit of both, isn't it? they're sort of the greatest hits so, of course, there's a thrill in being able to deliver that but at the same time, you have to sort of dispense with the idea that the audience might be chanting them along with you. the famous speeches are famous for a reason. i mean, "to be, or not to be" is an examination of what it might be to — is there another life? is this...? what are humans? it's so fundamental to who we are. possibly the most famous speech from macbeth, "tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, creeps in this "petty pace from day to day," is just an examination of what it is to — to look eternity in the face and to feel like you are shelled out, hollowed out, and those words express that in a way that nothing else really does, so to get given those greatest hits, what an honour it is.

you just have to try and fresh mint it every time. that's the trick. inhales deeply exhales forcefully is this a dagger which i see before me... the handle toward my hand? come... shakespeare is so part of the national conversation, which i totally buy into. he is. yeah. but for many people, he really isn't. or is he? well, he is, because you might not be entirely aware but there are so many phrases that we use every day that are part of shakespeare. the way we — like, the way language has evolved is in no small part due to the effect he had on language, the words he created.

just the way we kind of parse things, it's all in there. and also, these stories are ones that are known, that are passed down. i mean, richard iii, for instance, there's a huge debate, you know, because obviously recently he was rediscovered, wasn't he, in a car park? under the "".r yeah! crazy! amazing, innit? amazing. and, of course, there are fans of richard iii who's a bit furious with shakespeare because how we imagine richard iii existed and the way he lived his life is entirely defined by shakespeare's version of it, which was entirely theatrical, and which shakespeare used for his own purposes, so yes, he is part of the weft of our cultural life. whatever the historical truth may be, shakespeare has made of richard an unscrupulous murderer, twisted in mind and body, relentless in his ambition to gain the crown of england, destroying all who stand in his way. darest thou resolve to kill...?

there's so many words that he coined for the first time and, you know, things that we say every day which that... like what? "neither a borrower nor a lender be," you know? well, my favourite one at the moment is, "i am "in blood, stepped in so far that should i wade no more, "returning were as tedious as go o'er." which has, ithink, probably always been my favourite shakespeare quote and i definitely overuse but now, i get to say it on stage every night. probably most people aren't using that one but they are using a lot, you're right, of shakespearean phrases without remembering... yes, all the time. ..without knowing that they're shakespeare. so, i suppose, what would you say to people who say, "it's elitist," you know? "i'm not interested"? i don't think — i don't think it's elitist. i don't think it ever was elitist. imean... shakespeare was a popular author in his day. i mean, now there are — listen, there are problems about access to theatre because it's expensive to put on and the arts council isn't funded like it once was, so theatre prices are more expensive than maybe they should be. that's a different debate.

that's not — the elitism there isn't the work, it's the access to it, and that is a problem and that is something that we as a society should be striving... you know, there should be more tags, theatre around glasgows, being able to go into schools and present these plays to children who wouldn't necessarily have access to them otherwise. i know we've certainly got some coming here to the donmar warehouse, but that's, you know, that should be part of what we're all hoping for as a society. thy banish'd trunk be found in our dominion, the moment is thy death! for people, younger people, perhaps, who are coming to the plays, i get it, go to the theatre and see them if you can. but in terms of the actual language, when you're looking at a shakespeare work for the first time, i mean, are you getting the sort of modern translation next to it? 0h! as an actor? yeah. 100%, you are! yes! laughs cheating straight away! not cheating. cheating straight away!

using all the notes and all the — yeah, absolutely. but that's our job. you leave that to us, so that when you come to the theatre, don't worry about that. let us know what we're telling you and the meaning — you'll receive the meaning if it's a good production. if we're doing ourjob halfway properly, you shouldn't have to worry about understanding every syllable. but you will be taken by it. you will be transported by it. 0h, be happy, lady, foryou are like an honourable father. if signor leonato be her father, she would not have his head on her shoulders for all messina, as like him as she is! i wonder that you will still be talking, signor benedick. - nobody marks you. laughter what? my dear lady disdain! chuckling are you yet living? how are you doing macbeth? are you allowed to say? the great thing about the donmar warehouse, where we have the pleasure of playing it, is it's small, so it's intimate and we're

trying to find ways of making it as intimate as possible. one of the difficult things about macbeth is shakespeare kind of created a cliche. he's got the witches, which, of course, in the time he wrote — as we understand it, he probably wrote it to order because king james liked a witch and he was new on the throne, so he thought, "i'll write a play about witches for him. "that'll cheer him up. "that'll get him on my side." and he, you know — "hubble, bubble, toil and trouble." it's all — you know, that comes from macbeth, the idea of witches dancing around a cauldron. shakespeare invented that. all: the weird sisters, hand in hand... - what's difficult about that now is he invented it so successfully, it's almost a cliche. this is where the cliche began. but that doesn't necessarily help a modern audience to see beyond it, so we're — you're trying to find ways of, what would scare a modern audience? what would unsettle you now in a way that a witch dancing around a cauldron with a frog's leg might have scared somebody in, you know, in the early 1600s? what are you? all hail, macbeth.

hail to thee, thane of glamis. all: all hail, macbeth! hail to thee, thane of cawdor! as we get to the end, slightly strangely, but not... yeah. ..courtesy of the british library, they've wanted us to present you... oh, my goodness! it looks like this is your life. and then, imagine it was a real one! well, it's a facsimile of the real one. a facsimile?! how...? what, this is, like, a present? yes, and this is a present for you from the british library who own the first folio. wow! how amazing! has he signed it? no, he hasn't. no. that's beautiful! i think there were 750 published and about 230... 235. ..235 still exist, which is a lot for a 400—year—old book, which obviously shows its always been cherished. there's always been something about these words that people have taken care of. for a third of them to still be around 400 years on is a lot. it means these words have meant so much to so many people for hundreds of years.

do you know your lines or do you still need to keep learning? i know — i have a good working knowledge of them. i can learn my lines directly off this! well, i've put a handy — just a little place mark in for you there... thank you! ..because that is the tragedy of macbeth. there it is! "if it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well it "were done quickly. "if the assassination could trammel up the consequence "and catch, with his surcease, success. "that but this blow might be the be—all "and the end—all here. "but here, upon this bank and shoal of time, "we'd jump the life to come. "but in these cases, we still have judgement here, "for we but teach bloody instruction which, "being taught, returns to plague the inventor. "this even—handed justice commends the ingredients "of our poison�*d chalice to our own lips.

"he's here in double trust. "first, as i am his kinsman and his subject, strong both against the deed, then as his host, who should "against his murderer shut the door, not bear "the knife myself! "besides, this duncan hath borne his faculties "so meek, hath been so clear in his great office, "that his virtues will plead like angels, trumpet—tongued, "against the deep damnation of his taking—off. "and pity, like a naked newborn babe, shall blow "the horrid deed in every eye, that tears shall "drown the wind. "i have no spur to prick the sides of my intent, "but only vaulting ambition which o'erleaps itself "and falls on the other." you know those words. i knew that bit! i did know that bit! come on! is that why you chose it? you knew you'd do it well!

very good! applauds hello. the weather's been continuing to cause some disruption through the final few days of 2023. we've had heavy rain, heavy snow across parts of scotland on saturday. for new year's eve on sunday, still some strong winds and heavy showers, especially in the south and the west. generally, a bit drier and less windy across the north—east of the uk, away from the northern isles — that is where we'll have this lingering weather front. but low pressure very much with us, drifting its way gradually eastwards, and there'll be a rash of showers rotating around that area of low pressure, blown in on these brisk west or south—westerly winds. so, the strongest of the winds

probably for the south—west of england. the channel isles could be gusting 60 miles an hour. similar for the northern isles, too. 50 mile per hour gusts possible through the davis straits, for instance. and plenty of those heavy showers really across southern and western parts of england, wales, northern ireland and south west scotland. 6—10 degrees cooler than recent days. some drier conditions for central parts of scotland, perhaps the east of the pennines and in northern england as well. but if you're planning on heading out to see some fireworks new year's eve, let's look at what the weather is doing around about midnight. and there are still some showers across southern england and wales but they will, i think, tend to ease a little bit in frequency, so you may miss them. they are still blown in on these fairly brisk winds, though i think most of the showers will be across northern england, perhaps northern ireland as well and a few of them across the north—east of scotland, where they could be wintry, but some clearer and drier weather for central and western scotland as well. so, really, it's going to be a mixed picture around midnight with a scattering of showers almost anywhere.

moving through into the early hours of monday, new year's day, and the winds will start to ease a little bit. for most of us, it'll be frost—free but some frost and some icy conditions, particularly if you've got that lying snow across the north—east of scotland. new year's day itself, still some showers around but they're going to tend to ease for northern ireland, parts of southern scotland, northern england as well, so some drier, brighter, less windy weather for many of us. but heavy rain close to the south coast here just could push in for the likes of the isle of wight, perhaps sussex and kent, for instance, as well. and then, more persistent rain will rattle its way through later on monday into tuesday as well, so a spell of wetter weather, i think, later in the day and more of the same to come over the next week or so. it's still unsettled. further spells of rain. perhaps a little bit cooler and drier towards the end of next week. bye— bye.

live from washington, this is bbc news. ukraine says more than 120 villages have been hit by russia in recent attacks, with dozens killed. it comes as the kremlin claims ukraine killed 20 people in a border city and injured more than a hundred others. israeli forces push deeper into parts of central and southern gaza as aid agencies say hospitals have been overwhelmed with casualties. north korea's leader, kimjong—un, says his country faces unprecedented pressure from the united states and has no option but to press on with its nuclear ambitions.

i'm helena humphrey. good to have you with us. parts of ukraine are again under attack by russian drones after two days of massive aerial assaults by both sides. ukraine's military says its air defence system has been activated in kyiv to repel a russian drone attack. and one person has been killed in kherson by russian shelling. meanwhile, officials in kharkiv say russian strikes hit a hotel and a residential building. 19 people were injured. no deaths have been reported. moscow has been retaliating after ukrainian strikes on the russian border city of belgorod, one of its biggest drone assaults on russian territory since the war began. these pictures show smoke rising above belgorod on saturday. russia says 20 people, including three children, were killed in air strikes. more than 100 others were injured. kyiv says only military facilities were targeted. the city is located approximately 40 kilometres north of the border with ukraine, 80 kilometres away from the ukrainian city of kharkiv. it follows friday's massive bombardment of ukraine, the biggest of the war so far, which killed at least 39

people, according to ukraine's president, volodymr zelensky.