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Shakespeare's popular comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream forms part of our celebrations of the Bard's work. We spoke to director David Kerr about his work on Russell T Davies' adaptation of Shakespeare's play. Watch the production on 主播大秀 One at 8.30pm on Monday 30 May 2016.

What is your role in Midsummer Night’s Dream?

As the director, it’s my job to bring the script to life on the screen. 

Russell T Davies’ script is a terrifically bold adaptation of Shakespeare’s original, true to Shakespeare’s language, and a heady blend of action, drama and comedy. 

What was really vital for me was how the comedy might play, and specifically what the right tone for the comedy might be. You can’t assume that the comedy in a production like this will take care of itself; that funny words will simply transmute into a funny scene. I had to work with the actors to find the right pitch for performance. There are scenes of high farce and physical comedy, where choices about how the action is staged and shot have a direct bearing on how funny it is. There are scenes of verbal sparring, where timing is critical. And that’s something I refined in the edit, with the help of the brilliant editor, Philip Kloss.

In rehearsal and throughout the shoot, I helped the actors unpack the Shakespearean language so that the meaning was clear - and the comedy landed.

I was very closely involved in the casting process, casting the right actors and bringing them together as an ensemble. 

I’d worked a couple of times before with the amazing Matt Lucas, so we had a good rapport, and once with the wonderful Elaine Paige. The rest of the cast were new to me, but it was a tremendous privilege to work with actors I’d admired for years - and some who are really just starting out, but have enormous talent.

Why did you want to be part of the project?

As a director, I can’t resist a challenge. This was certainly a challenge: one of the best-loved plays ever written; a hugely ambitious adaptation that takes in high comedy, high octane action and really poignant drama; and it had to be entertaining enough to work on primetime on the 主播大秀’s main channel for a mainstream, family audience. 

A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a wonderfully rich story with a set of contrasting worlds: The Court of Athens re-imagined as a repressive fascist state; the world of the forest and its fairies, a wild place, elemental, and unpredictable; and the humble world of the working town where The Mechanicals live. 

One of the challenges was to render each of these worlds on screen with as much richness and cinematic scale as possible - on a television budget. I didn’t want it to be the kind of production based on pointing cameras at a stage where actors stood stiffly orating. I wanted it to be fun, never boring - and to look spectacular.

Magic is so integral to the story that Visual FX were a must. I collaborated with VFX Designer Rob Harvey, who won an Oscar for Gladiator. But I wanted some of those magical and exotic elements to be practical, built into the sets and lighting, like Powell & Pressburger did with films like Black Narcissus - so many years before CGI was an option - andI had the help of a really inventive Production Designer, Michael Pickwoad, who not only designs Dr Who, but designed one of my all-time favourite films, Withnail & I.

We shot some of our forest scenes out on location,  and some in a forest set we built in the studios at Cardiff. Matching those studio and location scenes so they were seamless in terms of look and lighting was tricky, so huge credit goes to my DoP, Dale McCready.

What is it about ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ that excites and appeals to audiences?

I hope that people will be excited by the visual style, the richness of the sets, costumes and FX, the power of Murray Gold’s score…but above all, I want the audience to connect with the characters: Young characters behaving foolishly, in love – that’s something any of us can connect with; then there are the supernatural creatures: Titania, Oberon and Puck in the forest. They’re fascinating and strange and they play havoc with human behaviour.

There’s so much more to this production than dialogue:  clifftop chases, full-on stunts, even a huge music and dance finale. 

Russell has expanded upon the original play, making Theseus - who’s a bit bland in Shakespeare’s text - a sadist and dictator who rules his state with a rod of iron.

But in addition to our bold characters, we’ve also got some hilarious ones. When you’ve got Matt Lucas playing Bottom, Bernard Cribbins, Richard Wilson, and Elaine Paige, it’s inevitable you’re going to laugh. Just to be able to spend time watching these people as a viewer, I defy anyone not to laugh.

What do you want viewers to take away from ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’?

I would love people to be amazed. I would love anyone who was expecting A Midsummer Night’s Dream to be a bit stiff and stodgy to be astonished and delighted, to find it exciting, joyous, full of drama - and funny’.

Describe ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ in one sentence.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream is about love, it’s about power, and it’s about the power of love.

• Russell T Davies’s adaptation of  is on 主播大秀 One at 8.30pm
• Discover more of our Shakespeare celebrations on the 
• Read  about our Shakespeare programming in 2016