Judi Dench on the Importance of Shakespeare in Schools

In a recent interview with BBC, Dame Judi Dench chatted about the importance of teaching Shakespeare in schools. Dench commented: " I would like to be doing a Shakespeare play every single night, and I do try to say a sonnet every day... Either it gives you goosebumps or it doesn't, and I heard this morning that some schools have stopped doing Shakespeare on the school curriculum."

She continued: "There might be somebody who might be suddenly ignited by that and think they'd like to see more of it or hear more of it."

Click here to check out the interview.

Dench made her professional debut in 1957 with The Old Vic Company. Over the following few years she played in several of William Shakespeare's plays in such roles as Ophelia in Hamlet, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet and Lady Macbeth in Macbeth. During the next two decades, she established herself as one of the most significant British theatre performers, working for the National Theatre Company and the Royal Shakespeare Company. In television, she achieved success during this period, in the series A Fine Romance from 1981 until 1984 and in 1992 began a continuing role in the television romantic comedy series As Time Goes By.

Her film appearances were infrequent until she was cast as M in GoldenEye (1995), a role she has played in each James Bond film since but which will be killed off in the upcoming Skyfall. She received several notable film awards for her role as Queen Victoria in Mrs. Brown (1997), and has since been acclaimed for her work in such films as Shakespeare in Love (1998), Chocolat (2000), Iris (2001), Mrs Henderson Presents (2005) and Notes on a Scandal (2006), and the television production The Last of the Blonde Bombshells (2001).