Alex Kingston to play Lady Macbeth opposite Kenneth Branagh

Alex Kingston plays River Song in the BBC's Doctor Who

Alex Kingston is to play Lady Macbeth opposite Sir Kenneth Branagh in a new version of Shakespeare's tragedy.

The production will be staged inside a deconsecrated church at Manchester International Festival in July.

Kingston told the Daily Mail: 'I'm excited - and a bit terrified, as well - about being given the challenge and being pushed."

The actress's numerous TV roles include River Song in Doctor Who and Dr Elizabeth Corday in ER.

Roles with the Royal Shakespeare Company include Hero in Much Ado About Nothing, Cordelia in King Lear and Jaquenetta in Love's Labour's Lost. She played Desdemona in Othello for Birmingham Rep and Titania in A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield.

In 2011 Kingston was seen on the London stage in Luise Miller at the Donmar Warehouse. In 2006 she played Nurse Ratched in the West End production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, starring Christian Slater.

Sir Kenneth plays the lead role of Macbeth in this new production which he co-directs with Emmy and Tony award-winning director Rob Ashford.

Regarded as one of the great modern Shakespearean actors, he last appeared in one of the Bard's plays in Richard III at the Sheffield Crucible in 2002.

While the production has sold out, a one-off big screen relay will take place in Manchester's Bridgewater Hall Car Park on 20 July.