BOLTON actress Maxine Peake will lead a stellar cast in a BBC adaptation of Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream.

Maxine will play the role of Titania in the Bard's much loved played which is being aired as part of the challenge's Shakespeare Festival.

Las month marked 400 years since William Shakespeare’s death.

The play has been adapted by Russell T Davies and will also star Matt Lucas, Bernard Cribbins, Elaine Paige, Nonso Anozie, Javone Prince, Richard Wilson and Hiran Abeysekera.

The actress who played Hamlet at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester appeared on the Graham Norton Show to talk about her part.

Speaking on the show she said: "It's fantastic, it is as you would imagine from Russell T Davies, it's fun, it's irreverent.

"It's a good introduction to people who maybe would not normally turn on to Shakespeare or youngsters to get into the spirit of it."

A Midsummer Night's Dream is a much-loved play by William Shakespeare, set in the tyrannical court of Athens and the magical forest around the city.