The BFI has announced that Ian McKellen will be spearheading the BFI’s Shakespeare on Film programme from April 2016, full details of which will be announced in January 2016. The news was released by the British Council and the GREAT Britain campaign as part of Shakespeare Lives, a global programme celebrating Shakespeare’s work and influence which will run from January to December 2016.

The British Council will be running a global touring programme in association with the BFI, the largest ever organised by the British Council, featuring twenty great interpretations of Shakespeare’s works for the cinema from the BFI National Archive, including Shakespeare on silent film, Laurence Olivier’s Hamlet (1948), Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet (1968) and Richard Loncraine‎’s Richard III (1995) starring Ian McKellen.

For more details of the announcement visit  http://www.britishcouncil.org/shakespearelives