An actor has travelled the world interviewing A-list actors about Shakespeare for a BBC documentary.

Giles Terera, 36, who grew up in Stevenage, has spent five years planning and producing a documentary all about the works of Shakespeare.

He and fellow actor Dan Poole interviewed a host of famous performers, including Alan Rickman, Ewan McGregor and Judi Dench, as part of the production.

Speaking about the aims of the documentary, Mr Terera said: “We wanted to make something that the ordinary man in the street would find accessible and provide them with a way into Shakespeare’s writing.

“When we were at school, we just read it in English and it didn’t make an impression. We wondered why that was, and if other people felt the same. We thought we’d ask all the people who are brilliant at doing Shakespeare what they like and what helped them get over their anxieties about it.

“It’s often the way that people encounter Shakespeare and it’s not done well, so they feel it’s not for them, whereas the plays are actually brilliant and simple stories about things we all live through.”

Mr Terera, who attended Stevenage’s Heathcote School, is currently playing the role of Mafala Hatimbi in West End musical The Book of Mormon.

The documentary, Muse of Fire, will be broadcast tomorrow (Thursday) at 10pm on BBC Four.