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One of our greatest Shakespearean actors Sir Ian McKellen joins renowned Shakespearean scholar, broadcaster and critic Professor Sir Jonathan Bate to discuss their lives in Shakespeare.

The festival marks the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death with a unique chance to hear McKellen talk about his relationship with the great plays with Bate, the author of The Genius of Shakespeare – described by the founder of the Royal Shakespeare Company, Sir Peter Hall, as ‘the best modern book on Shakespeare’.

McKellen is one of the best-known actors in the world, whose multiple honours include six Laurence Olivier Awards, a Tony Award, and a Golden Globe Award. His work spans film, including as Gandalf in Lord of the Rings and Magneto in the X-Men films, and stage. He frequently played lead Shakespearean roles at the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) and at the National Theatre in the 1970s and 80s and returned to the RSC in 2007 to play King Lear. He has most recently been seen in two series of the ITV sitcom Vicious about an elderly gay couple who have been together for 50 years.

Bate is provost of Worcester College and professor of English at the University of Oxford. He is a renowned Shakespeare scholar and wrote a one-act play for Simon Callow, Being Shakespeare. His biography of John Clare won the Hawthornden Prize for Literature and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Biography. Ted Hughes: The Unauthorised Life, about which he speaks at another festival event, was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize.