Doctors meets Shakespeare: Peter Lloyd talks to Joe Godwin

The BBC Academy Podcast

Doctors series producer and writer Peter Lloyd had always wanted to incorporate Shakespeare into the show. With 2016 being the 400th anniversary of the death of the great bard and the BBC celebrating in grand style with its six-month Shakespeare Festival, it seemed the perfect opportunity.

In this podcast Joe Godwin, director of the BBC Academy and BBC Birmingham, hears why Peter decided to avoid the well-trodden path of Shakespeare's plays and use his sonnets for a week of episodes.

They talk about how creative risks like this can be very popular with audiences. The two of them also discuss the practicalities writing an episode using a sonnet for inspiration and incorporating a reading into each one. Peter also talks about how he worked with the BBC iWonder team to produce a guide to the sonnets, as well as how the cast leapt at the chance to take part with a straight-to-camera reading of a sonnet.

Moving away from Shakespeare, Peter and Joe talk about diversity on the show and in drama production in general - both in casting and behind the camera.

They then go on to discuss a week of Doctors programmes highlighting homelessness that were inspired by the story of a homeless man Peter met on a night out in Birmingham. Joe also finds out why Doctors is a continuing drama series, and not a soap, and the difference

This podcast, edited by Ben Toone, is a recording of a masterclass at BBC Birmingham on 22 April 2016.