The Best Bottoms in the Land

2016 is a momentous year for the Royal Shakespeare Company – it’s the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death. As part of the celebrations, the Company is taking on its biggest challenge ever and the BBC is here to follow it all the way.

Performing A Midsummer Night's Dream – one of Shakespeare’s best loved comedies – a professional cast will tour the country, but there’s something unique about this production. Alongside the cast of professionals, six actors from a local amateur company will play the Mechanicals, a group of parts which includes the famous role of Bottom.

With unprecedented access, BBC English Regions is capturing all of the action in nine 30-minute regional documentaries, to show just how hard it can be to find The Best Bottoms in the Land. The Best Bottoms In The Land follows the pressures and pitfalls of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s project, from auditions to the opening night of each region’s local performance.

Erica Whyman is the deputy artistic director at the Royal Shakespeare Company, and the pressure is on her to deliver a hit. She says: “My reputation is definitely on the line, because it’s got to be the finest production of A Midsummer Night's Dream that I could possibly deliver. The most daunting aspect for me was the uncertainty of bringing together the professional company with the amateur actors and the schoolchildren; it was a project like no other that the RSC had ever taken on. Having the BBC’s cameras there to follow us from auditions to opening night has added another element of surprise – but it’s fantastic to have these documentaries to follow this once-in-a-lifetime experience.”

Juggling real life with the pressures of appearing in a professional production has certainly been a challenge for the amateur actors. There have been sore throats, bruised egos, missed cues and even broken bones along the way – but, of course, the show must go on. BBC cameras have been on hand to capture