Doctor Who Vs. Hamlet

In 1925 (more than eighty years
before David Tennant's highly
acclaimed portrayal of the Prince

of Denmark) a teenage William

Hartnell joined Sir Frank Benson's Shakespearean Company. He

performed in Hamlet a year later,

and again in 1928.

Patrick Troughton and Peter Cushing both appeared in Laurence Oliver's film rendition of Hamlet (1948). The first ever 

television production of the play 

was broadcast the year before, 

and was Troughton's TV debut 

(he played Horatio here, and 
the Player King in the film).

Tennant took the title role when the RSC staged Hamlet at Stratford in
2008, and the play (originally televised on BBC2 the following Christmas)

was repeated on BBC4 last night - the cast included Patrick Stewart and

Doctor Who guest actors David Ajala, John Woodvine, Roderick Smith,

Peter De Jersey, Andrea Harris and Zoe Thorne.

William Russell starred as the Prince in the 1961 TV version of Hamlet,
opposite a dozen future classic era guest stars (Clive Morton, Bernard Kay,
Nicholas Hawtrey, Neville Jason, Thane Bettany, Anthony Gardner, Kenneth 
Gilbert, Peter Copley, William Marlowe, Robert James, Terence Bayler and 
Michael Spice).

 Another BBC dramatisation in 1980 featured Derek Jacobi, Geoffrey
Beevers, and Lalla Ward (as Ophelia) - here with Claire Bloom, Geoffrey
Bateman, Emrys James, Reginald Jessup, Peter Benson, Peter Burroughs, 
and series stalwart Stuart Fell.

Peter Davison appeared in a 1974 production of the play, whilst
Christopher Eccleston took the lead role in Leeds (2002). John
 Simm also played the Prince, in Sheffield in 2010.