Stratford MP Nadhim Zahawi today kicked off a campaign to get the world’s most famous playwright officially recognised in the calendar. He was joined by Britain’s oldest real life William Shakespeare, a 91 year old from Bristol who became the first person to sign a petition to recognise 23 April as William Shakespeare Day. Nadhim and Mr Shakespeare launched the campaign at Gatwick Airport by unveiling a special edition easyJet aircraft, adorned with a picture of Shakespeare on the fuselage. EasyJet is backing the bid to get the Bard recognised and is helping to gather the 100,000 signatures necessary for the issue to be debated in Parliament. They’ve already commissioned thousands of seat back adverts to raise awareness of the campaign will be staging free Shakespearean performances at airports across the UK this month. The campaign will culminate on the 450th anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth on 23 April, with a special performance of the complete works by the Reduced Shakespeare Company on an easyJet flight to Verona. At 38,000 feet, this will set a Guinness World Record for the highest altitude performance of Shakespeare. Commenting Nadhim said: “It was a great honour to meet Mr Shakespeare, who was incredibly proud to share a name with the world’s greatest dramatist. I’m delighted that easyJet have chosen to campaign on this issue. Like Will, they are a great British success story and the ‘Alfa Romeo Juliet’ aircraft looked amazing. We need to collect 100,000 signatures on this e-petition to get time for a debate in the House of Commons and I hope all Stratfordians will lend their support to get this issue off the runway. The Bard was ‘not of an age, but for all time’, and I have long argued this sceptre’d isle should celebrate April 23 as a national holiday. Officially recognising Shakespeare’s birthday in the calendar would be a great start.