23/04/2014 Midlands Today

a woman has been arrested after three of her children are found dead

at their King Henry IV is being staged by the

RSC for the 450th birth anniversary of Shakespeare. So what makes this

playwright such a huge success amongst actors?

It is a mixture of language, beautiful beautiful images but also

unforgettable images. It is the combination of that and his giant

portrait of mankind. He shows absolutely everything there is about

us, the good, the bad, the strong, the week and he does it in the most

compassionate and loving way. But you don't have to be an actor to be

touched by the Bard. Most of us don't realise we use Shakespearean

language in everyday speech. You are a sorry sight! That is rude

but he is quoting Shakespeare. You are taking for ever and a day.

So is she. All is well that ends well.

Yes, that is Shakespeare. Beyond the market, the world truely is

Shakespeare's stage. In 2012 The Globe Theatre in London put with 38

productions in 38 languages, There's no denying it, Shakespeare is not

just for the theatre and thespians, Shakespeare is ours.

Shakespeare isn't just for the theatre and thespians. Shakespeare

is ours and there is no denying it. There was a major Shakespeare

conference taking place in France. I am joined by Paul in Paris. How come

you are in France? Well, the Shakespeare Centre is used to

welcoming people from all over the world during the year but our good

friends at the Society of Shakespeare and France have gathered

hundreds to celebrate the anniversary year with a major

international conference. It is absolutely fascinating. We have had

talks on Shakespeare in the First World War, the French were our

allies of course and this morning a group of us scholars met to discuss

Shakespeare's friends and colleagues so Stratford upon over and kept

popping up in France. And you will take Shakespeare on the

road in the summer in July to North America.

Yes, we have partnered with the University of Warwick and we will

travel 10,000 miles across 25 states visiting 14 Shakespeare festivals

around the States and North America. These are groups of people who are

making Shakespeare live year in, year out for their communities and

we want to start conversations and map the sense of Shakespeare across

America and they are invited to deposit records in the archives for

posterity so when people look back and say what worthy anniversary

years like previously, we will have a sense of what Shakespeare in

America was like at that time. It is a huge project. Walking around

Stratford, I have had French, German, Swedish, Japanese, what is

the international appeal? Well, it is his great power of

storytelling, the way different people translate him into their own

language and it is the way people feel close to Shakespeare, connected

with the way he views the world and phrases things so we decided to take

Shakespeare on the road around the United States as a 450th birthday

celebration. Enjoy the celebrations. Thank you for joining us. That is it

from Stratford for now. A teenager with terminal cancer has achieved

his final wish of raising one million pounds for the Teenage

Cancer Trust. Nineteen`year`old Stephen Sutton from Burntwood in

Staffordshire tweeted what appeared to be a goodbye message and photo

from hospital yesterday ` after his tweet donations dramatically

increased Smashing Stephen's million pound fundraising target. Jon Brain

reports. He has a smile on his face but Stephen Sutton says this picture

is this final farewell to the world. A world he's leaving ?1 million

better off. On his Facebook page he says it is a final thumbs up from

me. I have done well to blag things as well as I have, but unfortunately

I think this is to one hurdle too far. Diagnosed with terminal

cancer, the teenager decided to turn his plight into something positive

and raise money for charity by completing a wish list. The crowd

surfed in a dinghy, went skydiving, played the drums in front of 90,000

people in Wembley, met and an offence and got a tad too.

I don't do it for recognition, I like nice comments but I do this

because the best way to help myself is to help others. I'm proud the

feeling. The story has attracted the attention of celebrities like

Russell Brand, Roger Daughtry and Frank Lampard. It raises the profile

of the campaign further. Breaking the million pound barrier has helped

faces situation, he says that is it for me, life has been good. Very

good. Earlier I spoke to the director of fundraising at the

Teenage Cancer Trust. We are overwhelmed the target has been hit

and in the time. It speaks so highly of Stephen's ability to inspire

people but also a huge chance for us to say thank you to everyone who has

got involved because it wouldn't have happened without thousands and

thousands of people text in or going online to give. Stephen made a huge

impression on people in the office. You have met him, how do you

describe him? Remarkably calm, down to earth,

determined. I would never want to say no to Stephen. When I first

spoke to him after he secured a remarkable donation from corporate

supporters at their dinner, it was a donation of ?400,000 and I phoned

him to thank him and I was overwhelmed. Stephen was just calm

and said, yes, it is a good start. He is a really really remarkable

young man. A leaked report suggesting six

Birmingham schools are to be put in special measures because of concerns

over alleged Muslim extremism has been condemned by the council

leader. The Daily Telegraph and its sister title The Sunday Telegraph

claimed Ofsted is taking the action. It has inspected a number of schools

accused of being part of a so called Trojan Horse plot to influence

teaching methods. But the findings aren't due to be published until

next month. Of course Shakespeare's birthday is also St George's Day and

there was a special Citizenship Ceremony in Dudley today. One of the

20 people becoming British today was Jeanette Tranter, who despite living

in Kingswinford for more than 50 years, was actually born in

Colorado, after her mother met an American GI. Joanne Writtle followed

her journey to dual citizenship and her report contains some flash

photography. This is my parents on their wedding day. Jeanette

Tranter's mothered an American GI in 1945. Emigrating to his remit farm

in Colorado was a culture shock. No electricity on the farm, if she

wanted food, chickens, she would go out, kill a chicken, pluck it and

cook it. She churned her own butter. She felt homesick at times

and that is when my brother was born. And then my second brother was

born and then a six`year gap until I was. Eventually, because of

unforeseen circumstances, my father committed suicide and my mother

could not run the farm by herself. And so very sadly she sold

everything up and we came back to England. This is the American

passport Ginette and her brothers travelled with. Six years ago, their

mother died here, Jeanette has made Kingswinford for home. Today, 60

years after arriving in Britain, Jeanette is about to become a

British citizen at a ceremony at deadly register office. Until my

mother died, it was difficult because she was so proud of us being

American and so I felt as though I had the go`ahead after she died and

also I have lived here most of my life. I am British really. Ginette

was among 20 to achieve citizenship today. A day she has waited many

years to celebrate. Absolutely brilliant. Really good. What would

your mum think? Oh, she would be really proud. Yes. A good place to

be. Let's head back to Stratford`upon`Avon for the weather.

Shefali is in the gardens at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. I am

taking shelter, not the best day to be outdoors but it is this sort of

weather, moody and atmospheric that has been the inspiration for poets

and writers the world over, not least Shakespeare whose works have

been littered with references from Forgan filthy air to winds that

crack your cheeks. The folk we may seem soon enough but the wind we

must wait for one to the weekend when things become increasingly

unsettled. Looking at the pressure chart, we can see a front straddling

the country containing a narrow area of rain. It is moving quite rapidly

so it should be out of the way fairly quickly but looking at the

timing, we are just about into the thick of things right now. Because

it is fairly quick moving eastwards it will be concentrated but out of

the way quite quickly. By the latter part of tonight, looking much drier

with clever spells, fairly widespread mist and fog developing

in low`lying areas. There could be problems by the morning. Be aware of

that. The temperatures are down to six or seven Celsius. Miss dinners

and murkiness tomorrow, that will lift into brightness and sunny

spells by the afternoon, largely dry conditions but we are looking at

potent and sharp showers `` mistiness. 14 or 15 Celsius. The

showers will gradually start to fade tomorrow night, looking a lot drier

than tonight and clear spells with temperatures dipping to around six

or seven Celsius. For the rest of the week, Friday, things go

downhill, deteriorating through the weekend with prolonged rainfall,

windy conditions and temperatures pegged back to 13 Celsius. That is

it from here. Over to Nick. A few want to get involved in the

celebrations for the 450th anniversary here in Stratford, the

main focus will be this weekend. On Saturday, crowds will be lining the

streets to see actors, foreign diplomats and civic dignitaries lead

the 1,000`strong grand Birthday Procession from 1030. And on Sunday,

it's the Shakespeare Marathon from the town centre from 9am, with 3,700

runners on the start line. Good night, good night.

'The last two generations have been robbed

'of an opportunity to vote on the EU.

'And yet it has a greater impact on our everyday lives

'and not leave it for another generation.'

I want a Britain that is free to control its own destiny.