In this series of The Essay, recorded this week in front of an audience at the Hay Festival, five writers explore The Art of Storytelling. The writers include linguist Prof. David Crystal, artist and memoirist Edmund de Waal, broadcaster and musician Clemency Burton-Hill and novelist Jon Gower.

Today, Prof. Emma Smith takes a closer look at Shakespeare's skills as a storyteller and how his plots, where the outcome is often signposted from the beginning, still hold audiences enthralled.

Part of Radio 3's week-long residency at the Hay Festival, with programmes In Tune, Lunchtime Concert, Free Thinking and The Verb all broadcasting from the Festival.