James Shapiro is one of the world’s great Shakespeare scholars. A professor of English at Columbia University in New York, he is the author of seven major books, including the bestsellers "1599" and "1606", each of which zoomed in on one year, immersing us in Elizabethan and Jacobean culture and politics. His latest book is “Shakespeare in a Divided America”, an intriguing study of how the bard has been staged – and fought over – on his side of the Atlantic. But Professor Shapiro describes himself as “the least academic academic I know”: he is deeply involved in the practical business of staging Shakespeare, working with The Globe in London, with the RSC, and with a New York company that takes plays into schools and prisons.

In an episode to celebrate Shakespeare’s birthday, James Shapiro talks about how he first fell in love with the Bard, despite a terrible teacher at school who put him off as a teenager. He reflects on his upbringing in a Jewish family in Brooklyn, and the family reaction when he married an Irish Catholic. He reveals why holding hands had a different meaning in Elizabethan England. And, drawing on historical parallels, he tells Michael Berkeley that he is absolutely certain we will have a thriving theatre culture again soon: after a plague (or a pandemic) people need the theatre.

For Private Passions, James Shapiro creates a playlist which gathers together fellow-admirers of Shakespeare, with Mendelssohn, Duke Ellington and Cole Porter. The programme begins with an Elizabethan pop song with lyrics by Shakespeare himself.

Produced by Elizabeth BurkeA Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 3