David Tennant is to bring his acclaimed performance of Hamlet from the stage to the screen in the form of a BBC 2 television play, the corporation said today.

The Doctor Who actor will star in a three-hour televised version of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production, along with Patrick Stewart, the Star Trek actor.

The RSC said that they hoped the television performance would give a wider audience the chance to see the play, after its London run sold out within hours.

Tennant also had to miss a number of shows after injuring his back and having surgery.

Michael Boyd, artistic director of the RSC, said: “We are very pleased that this RSC production will be seen by so many people when broadcast.

“As the show was sold out for its entire run, this is a really great opportunity for our work to be seen by so many who could not come to the theatre and see it on stage.” The play’s director, Gregory Doran said that there had been long-standing plans to film the production, but there was an “inevitable long journey in getting the cast together again and securing funding for this project”.

He added: “The Hamlet cast and the RSC are all really delighted that we now have the chance to share this show with audiences around the world, and I would like to thank all those involved in making this plan a reality at last.”

Janice Hadlow, the BBC 2 controller, said the production was “a wonderful opportunity...to bring one of the great stage successes of last year to a wider audience”.

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