Comedy drama serial Happy Birthday Shakespeare followed family man Will Green, a tourist bus driver who is convinced that life would be better if he and his family moved to the birthplace of his favourite man Shakespeare’s birthplace Stratford-Upon-Avon where he could open his own restaurant.
Will also harboured dreams about beginning a romance with tour guide Alice. At the time Happy Birthday Shakespeare garnered a huge amount of press interest but not because of the story but more the parralels with its plot line spilling over into real life as stars Holden and Morrissey beginning an affair even though Holden was the wife of comedian Les Dennis at the time (Dennis actually had a cameo in the production too!).
production details
UK / BBC1
RUNNING TIME: 75 minutes | NUMBER OF EPISODES: 2 | AIRDATE: 23-24 April 2000
WRITER: Mark Wallington | PRODUCER: Gareth Neame | DIRECTOR: Nick Hurran
cast
NEIL MORRISSEY as Will Green
DERVLA KIRWAN as Kate Green
AMANDA HOLDEN as Alice
SAM MORRIS as Martin Green
TONY SELBY as Ray
FREDDIE HIGHMORE as Steven Green
DAVID GILLESPIE as Graham
ROGER FROST as Frank
MARK WILLIAMS as Ted
DAVID RYALL as Dad
BHASKER PATEL as Vinod
TOM WATT as Mickey
AMANDA BOXER as Barbara Scott
C.J. ALLEN as Bryan Harper
LES DENNIS
