The BBC has begun filming the Royal National Theatre's production of King Lear, which played to near universal acclaim earlier this year.

The cast will be nearly the same as the stage play including Ian Holm, who was most recently awarded Best Actor for his portrayal of the monarch in the Evening Standard Drama Awards for 1997. Sir Richard Eyre, former artistic director of the RNT, was also lauded in the ceremony as Best Director for his hand in this production as well as Tom Stoppard's The Invention of Love.

Eyre adapted the play for the small screen and has substantially shortened it to run for two hours and twenty minutes. The £770,000 production, which will take three weeks to film, will be broadcast next year as part of BBC2s Performance season.

A spokesman for the BBC told The Stage newspaper that the story was fast-paced and perfect for television.

--By Terri Paddock
What's On Stage, London