‘Happy Valley’ Star Sarah Lancashire And ‘Peaky Blinders’ Creator Steven Knight Will Bring Shakespeare’s Life Story To TV Screens

Caroline Frost
·2 min read
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Fresh from her ratings triumph in the third and final season of Happy Valley, Sarah Lancashire is teaming with Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight to bring the story of William Shakespeare’s First Folio to screen.

The pair are in the initial stages of creating a series about Shakespeare’s life, to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the publication of his first work.

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The series will be made by Kudos, which previously created Knight’s series about the origins of British elite forces, SAS Rogue Heroes, in association with Via Pictures. The tireless Knight also penned the BBC’s recent dramatization of Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations.

No broadcaster is attached yet to the story of the Bard, but Lancashire, who recently created Via Pictures with her husband, former Banijay UK and BBC boss Peter Salmon, said: “Via Pictures are very pleased to be collaborating with Kudos and the brilliant Steven Knight to screen the remarkable story of William Shakespeare. This is a thrilling project about a Golden Age beset by plague, puritanism and deadly politics.”

And Knight added: “It’s a period I love and the team is extraordinary. It’s a story that begins in the West Midlands and is close to my heart.”

The show will be executive produced by Karen Wilson and Martin Haines for Kudos, by Lancashire and Salmon for Via Pictures, and Knight. It will be produced out of Knight’s Digbeth Loc studio in Birmingham.

Another project set to mark the Shakespearean anniversary is a three-part documentary telling his story. Helen Mirren and Adrian Lester are among the cast set to create dramatic scenes bringing to life the politics and other historical events that influenced Shakespeare and his work.

The series will be produced by 72Films and was described by BBC Chief Content Officer Charlotte Moore as “a documentary thriller.”

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