People have been staging Shakespeare for more than 400 years. With the stories and the poetry being so old, how are producers still able to make it accessible for audiences of today?

Well, the first thing to remember is that the stories and the poetry are not old. Great stories, like great poetry, do not get old. Just because we may not flounce around in tights calling people ‘sirrah' does not mean we cannot relate to Shakespeare's characters and their speech. Shakespeare's plays are about love and families and society and identity, so are the plays of Stoppard, Pinter, Beckett and Lloyd Webber. Shakespeare's poetry is about beauty, rhythm and imagery, so too is the poetry of Carol Ann Duffy, Benjamin Zephaniah, even Chris Martin. The secret then, is cutting out the little silly differences between Shakespeare's theatre and the theatre of today and colouring in the huge stupid similarities.

Easily said, but how about some practical pointers? Well, it just so happens that London's West End has been full of Shakespeare productions of late; let's see what advice they could offer.

Piece of advice 1: Choose the right play. A couple of years ago, everyone was banging on about King Lear. Sir Ian McKellen gave it a damn good crack, so did Pete Postlethwaite. Regent's Park do a brilliant Midsummer Night's Dream every, well, summer and all through the 50s and 60s everyone went mad for Othello. This year, Hamlet's been the dish of the day, and by goodness, it's been everywhere. Stratford, London, New York, on television; the Dane gets around.

Piece of advice 2: Get a comedian. Lenny Henry's Othello at the Trafalgar Studios was one of last year's most successful London shows. A hit with regular West End visitors and couples and families who enjoy London theatre breaks, Lenny Henry's Othello was one of the must-see shows of last year.

If you can't get a comedian, then piece of advice 3: Get a sci-fi star. It's true, if you can't get hold of a respected comedian to play the lead, get someone who has either captained the Starship Enterprise or has some experience as a Timelord. Thankfully, the RSC managed to kill two birds with one stunning production last year, when their version of Hamlet featured ex-Dr Who star David Tennant in the lead and Star Trek's Jean-Luc Picard (aka Patrick Stewart) as Claudius. And it looks like this is catching too, Life on Mars star John Simm has confirmed that he is currently preparing to play Hamlet at the Sheffield Crucible. Oh yeah, and all three of them are fantastic actors too, that might have had something to do with it.