Sir Patrick Stewart reads sonnets to help you through your social distancing

(Sinclair Broadcast Group) — Sir Patrick Stewart is working overtime to keep fans entertained while they are secluded in their homes to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

In addition to promoting his CBS All Access series “Picard,” in which he reprises his beloved “Star Trek: The Next Generation” character, Stewart has begun posting daily readings of William Shakespeare’s sonnets on social media.

Stewart, a former Royal Shakespeare Company member with a long resume of acclaimed Shakespeare performances, read Sonnet 116 to his Instagram and Twitter followers on March 21 and has since read seven more, with plans to continue. Other celebrities are doing similar things to fill the void with movie theaters and other forms of entertainment shuttered for the foreseeable future, like reading children’s stories on Instagram.

“When I was a child in the 1940s, my mother would cut up slices of fruit for me (there wasn't much) and as she put it in front of me she would say, ‘An apple a day keeps the doctor away.’ How about, ‘A sonnet a day keeps the doctor away’?” Stewart wrote.

Earlier this week, Stewart announced CBS has renewed “Picard” for a second season, and the network has decided to make the first season available free for the next month to anyone who registers for All Access. The season one finale began streaming Thursday.