Michael Keaton felt sure he'd be fired from the set of Kenneth Branagh's Shakespeare movie Much Ado About Nothing - because he knew nothing about The Bard and the film's literary expert hated him.

At the height of his Batman fame the actor was invited to play policeman Dogberry in the all-star 1993 movie, alongside Branagh, Emma Thompson, Keanu Reeves and Denzel Washington, and, keen to try something new, he signed up.

But he quickly wondered if he was suited for the film and spent most of the shoot convinced he'd be asked to leave.

Keaton explains, "I didn't think I could do it. I essentially had no knowledge of Shakespeare, hardly at all... The first day I showed up I was really intimidated because I thought all these Shakespearean actors were gonna laugh at me and they were gonna have to say we made a horrible mistake, and they were so ridiculously cool about it.

"It was such a relief that they really didn't understand the text at times either! Kenneth had a guy on set who was a Shakespeare scholar who was right at his side at all times who would tell Ken what this or that means. That poor man, oh God. I didn't want to look over at him.

"He was this very sweet little guy and after I'd do what I did I'd look over and he'd be like covering his face (in disgust)! I thought for sure they would ask me to leave, like, 'This is not working!'

"I was actually very sick during the shoot. I got a horrible flu and the sweat really worked for me!"