SHAKESPEARE returns to Appleby Castle this week in splendid style with two of the Bard’s best-loved comedies.

Running from Thursday, July 2, until Monday, July 6, Much Ado About Nothing and Twelfth Night are performed by one of the UK finest purveyors of Shakespearian works - GB Theatre Company.

Top drawer performers, the company is renowned for combining enough of a modern twist to make the Bard's plays translate to a modern audience, including children, without losing any of the wit or nuance of the original language.

Many of its actors have trained at the Bristol Old Vic with some working with the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Much Ado About Nothing is one of Shakespeare's best-known plays. The primary plot involves courtship and scandal mixed with a witty war of words.

The play is all about relationships between the sexes, with two very different couples.

Meanwhile, Twelfth Night is a romantic comedy, believed to have been written around 1601–02 as a Twelfth Night's entertainment for the close of the Christmas season. The play explores the notions of cross-dressing and mistaken identity with romance and love as the play’s main focus.

Barrie Palmer - who plays Leonato in Much Ado About Nothing and Sir Toby in Twelfth Night - is the company's artistic director.

Before training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in 2003 he was a police officer for 32 years, 22 of those spent as a scenes of crime officer (these days CSI).

Since graduating from Bristol, his love for Shakespeare was greatly enhanced when he was cast in the 2005/06 Comedy Season of the Royal Shakespeare Company appearing in Twelfth Night, directed by Michael Boyd, and As You Like It, directed by Dominic Cooke, performing in Stratford-Upon-Avon, Newcastle and the West End.

His television credits include EastEnders, Silent Witness and Harbour Lights.

Sally Nightingale, who owns Appleby Castle, said the term-time dates offer a wonderful opportunity for the region’s schoolchildren to see the work of the nation’s greatest dramatist brought brilliantly to life.

"Our children should be able to experience Shakespeare’s plays, not just study a book in a classroom. They were written as entertainment and spectacle, meant to be enjoyed."

Performances will be in the 12th Century inner bailey of the castle on:

Thursday, July 2, Much Ado About Nothing at noon, Twelfth Night at 7pm.

Friday, July 3, Twelfth Night at noon, Much Ado About Nothing at 7pm.

Saturday, July 4, Much Ado About Nothing, 2pm, Twelfth Night at 7pm.

Sunday, July 5, Twelfth Night at 2pm, Much Ado About Nothing at 7pm.

Monday, July 6, Much Ado About Nothing at noon, Twelfth Night at 7pm.

For tickets telephone Appleby Castle on 01768-353014 or Appleby TIC on 01768-351177.