Margaret Williams

Margaret Williams is the highly accomplished director who will be masterminding the coverage of the outside broadcast on the night of the big production of Romeo and Juliet.

She says that her main challenge at the event will be to focus on the less obvious performers as much as the principals. 'I won't necessarily be looking at the main cast, but the background action. I need to show what these people can do, given that they haven’t had that much training. We'll shoot it as normal ballet and edit the stuff afterwards. Otherwise, everyone will get too confused. In the edit, I can concentrate on the young people doing their thing.'

Margaret acknowledges that it will be a tight turn-around to get the production ready for broadcast soon afterwards on Channel 4. 'It’s nail-biting stuff!,' she exclaims. 'Normally, you only have a day to tidy up the footage in the edit, but fortunately this time I'll have a few days, which will help enormously.'

The director reckons that Ballet Hoo! will help to break down barriers. 'In my view, someone needs to take the dust and cobwebs out of ballet. The art form is too entrenched. I think it needs to liven up and attract a new audience.

'David Bintley, the director of the BRB, has been trying for years to get a new audience at the Hippodrome. This project might well help - in the same way that Operatunity helped bring a new audience to opera. That programme showed us that someone working behind a till at Tesco’s could become an opera singer.

'What's the last thing you’d expect a youngster from a disadvantaged background to do? Perform in a ballet. That's what makes this project so special. I must say, I've found the whole thing fantastically inspiring.'