'Sir Paul McCartney' Puts William Shakespeare's Words To Beatles Music

Chris O'Neill, who plays Sir Paul McCartney in a Beatles tribute act, has reimagined the band's music by inserting words from William Shakespeare.

O'Neill came up with the idea in his sleep and uses a mixture of extracts from Shakespeare's sonnets and plays during his one man performance.

"I woke up and wrote down all these ideas about the Beatles going back in time and meeting Shakespeare," he told the BBC.

O'Neill, who did not study Shakespeare at school, said he works most of the songs out on his piano with the help of the complete works of Shakespeare.

"The speeches are harder to do, sometimes I can't really get my head around the timings of how they are spoken but the sonnets seem to be very easy. They are perfect to put into music."

The singer began his tour, A Bard Day's Night, last night.

You can see a selection of rare Beatles shots from CBS’ exhibition, which is on display at the Beatles Story until November, below...