Shakespeare’s parents had been Catholics, and the tension between the new and old religions can be seen in much of his work. William’s father, John Shakespeare, was a member of the borough ...

This is the farm just outside Stratford where William’s mother Mary Arden used to live when she was young. RICKY: When Mary grew up and married a man called John Shakespeare they moved here to ...

Shakespeare lived through and survived a pandemic, one of a number of waves of the bubonic plague. Very sadly, however, his son Hamnet died of the plague, aged just 11. This affected William’s ...