The Globe on Screen

For all Shakespeare fans The Globe is the ultimate place to enjoy one of his works. But what if the performance of Much Ado About Nothing or Doctor Faustus is sold out? Well this autumn, Shakespeare's Globe in partnership with Arts Alliance Media will release three of its theatre productions to cinemas across the UK so even if The Globe is sold out or you simply can't get there you can enjoy the best of Shakespeare.

I had the chance to speak to Charles Edwards who is appearing in Shakespeare's wittiest of comedies, Much Ado About Nothing as Benedick ad who is also to appear in the new series of Downton.

Appearing at The Globe must be incredibly thrilling but even more so for Charles as his appearance in Much Ado would also be his first time appearing at the venue, "it is an extraordinary and unique place," he tells me. "It suits me very well as I like to play parts, like Benedict because he has a lot of time with the audience and you get to play with them and they answer back and you improvise with people, it's great fun, the ideal globe experience."


Charles points out that the audience are as much of a character at The Globe as the actors themselves, but with that in mind would the big screen experience take away from the audience enjoyment? "The audience is the all-important character and play a big role in an evening at The Globe; the films get a lot of shots of the audience so even though you aren't physically there you do feel that you're in amongst it."

So what would Charles' advice be to someone looking to see their first Shakespeare work on the stage? "The globe is the place to go if you're a Shakespeare virgin the globe is most definitely the place to go, there's something about it that makes it so accessible, Shakespeare isn't that difficult, all you have to do is listen."

After his first appearance at the famous venue Charles has clearly caught The Globe bug, " I'd love to do a comedy because I love the nature of the unruly crowd, its fun to deal with them and they love being dealt with."


But until he gets the chance to tread the boards at The Globe again, Charles will be appearing in Downton Abbey.

"Downton was a great deal of a fun and they are a wonderful group of people. To work as part of such a well-oiled machine is always very good."

"I was thrilled to be asked to do it and hopefully I will be in it for a while but you don't know. I quite like the ebb and flow of an actor's life, you never know what's coming around the corner, that what keeps it fresh."


Sadly he couldn't reveal any Downton secrets to me so we will just have to stay tuned and see how the story turns out.