and sha kespeare‘s company, the lord chamberlain's men, worked at a place called "the theatre". name that has stuck. i mis—spent my summers on stage, and i have done for the last 11 years. that experience has absolutely fascinated me. i mean, what was it like in sha kespeare‘s time, putting on a play? is it any different to today? and so, in a sense, it's an attempt to actually recreate the world of shakespeare's theatre. and you've done something rather cunning. you've brought in as the narrator of the story richard, one of shakespeare's brothers, a younger brother who is a real man. we know that he existed, but we know almost nothing about him. so you've got a wonderful blank sheet of paper! i love blank sheets of paper, and richard is the most blank of all of the sheets. shakespeare had three brothers — edmund, giles and richard. we know something about the first two. edmund became an actor and died much too young. he is buried in what is now southwark cathedral. but richard, we have his birth date, or at least the date of his christening. we have his death date. and we have

he opposed his appeasement policy until britain declared war and chamberlain invited him into the cabinet again as first lord of the admiralty so once churchill became presiden govern though he was constantly pressuring chamberlain to be more aggressive against the germans and publicly he was very much supported chamberlain and what he did and even until the very end when he was going against thesehe troublesome -- rightly, they were saying that we have to get chamberlain out of their and don't we are going to go down defeated. there's no question will go down to defeat. until the very end winston churchill wasas defending him. winston churchill was loyal. i mean he was very loyal to people and not always loyal but people who brought him into the government and certainly to neville chamberlain and he kept chamberlain in the government and once he became prime minister. he didn't throw them out. again that was loyalty but also, i think, because he was very politically afraid -- he was very clinically unpopular in the conservative party even when he became prime minister. he wanted to keep the tory leaders on

he opposed the policies and told britain declared war and chamberlain invited him as the first lord of the admiralty. and was constantly pressuring to be more expressive against the germans so he very much supported what he did even until the very end what we were talking about and then desperately saying we have to get chamberlain out of their. no question we will go down in defeat. winston churchill was veryll loyal but those who brought them into government any capt. than in the government once he became prime minister and did not throw him out. it was still politically afraid still unpopular even when he became prime minister.politi he wanted to keep the tory leader's on his side. and to keep lord halifax in see government. he was afraid they could oust him but if he started then he became the symbol of british resistance. so that he was very nervous about what would have been.. >>. >> so what was the post? was he there for show?. >> so basically as an adviser but churchill did listen he may not have gone along but he did listen to him.rl in those early days and months. there is a