Such sophisticated direction! How little there is of that, these days. Barton and his kind are sadly missed.

It's ridiuclous how perfectly she reads her lines. She is incredible.

Dame Judi delivers her lines so naturally. Perfect diction too.

Judi’s pauses are  natural and give gravitas where it works best. ….Just saying……she is connected to Shakespeare  in her heart and mind.

Judi Dench's sense of Shakespeare descends upon her from on high! She goes beyond mastery!

I loved this series. Watched it back in the 80s when it first came out. It's perennial and full of brilliance.

Dame Judi has often said that the key to Shakespeare is the meter of the verse. I think the director here is performing the same function as the conductor of an orchestra. That is, he is stressing the importance of the rhythm and technique. Once the actors understand that, they’re free to interpret within those parameters; same as an orchestral instrumentalist or an opera singer.

Michael Williams (here playing Curio) was Dame Judi's husband.

Look at her. She's bloody perfect, completely inhabiting the character, the soul, already. Totally present and in the moment. Effortlessly. Wonderful to watch!

I was very fortunate to study with John Barton

Watching genius at work is an absolute treat. Thank you for sharing.

I feel so sorry for people who have tin ears for the music of Shakespeare’s verse!  I’ve never acted it once, only read many of the plays and sonnets, and it’s the music of the verse that drew me in....of course, I’m a classically trained musician, but I wasn’t from freshman to senior years in high school when I studied 6 plays in my English classes, I was t formally trained then, but the music was so amazing to me and I learned to become drunk with words. I’ve never needed or wanted any other intoxicant than words and music!

Judi Dench is amazing.

I've just finished Henry James's The Tragic Muse, which stresses the importance of craft and technique in the histrionic art.  These actors exemplify this; their technique is as solid as a brick house.

Thanks for posting this! I see a lot of people do Shakespeare and it all sounds the same. Seeing people who actually know what they're doing is wonderful! And, what a masterful director! He knows every note and pause in this.

I feel her fear when she’s getting feedback and she looks to the floor and says yes I’ve been there you almost turn numb because ur a character

What I really love is the rhythm of Shakespeare's language. While these actors observe the
iambic pentameter they still sound like "real people". Even as child watching old movies I was  very drawn to the rather "over the top" interpretation...because even then it was coming from a place of organic honesty. Only after I became an actor did I understand how easy it is to surrender to that rhythm. It just rolls off the tongue like honey and feels so good that you can get "carried away".

Thank you for posting this because there’s other ones that are floating around. This is the one I watched like eight years ago and I learned so much about acting not realizing that Ian Makllen and the guy from Star Trek was a part of this many years ago. This is why they’re such great actors. But I learned so much from watching this master class of acting.

Judi Dench, in an interview, once credited her Shakespeare proficiency to directors who drilled good rhythm into her. In an era full of democratic cannibalism, we often forget the value of a teacher/curator. Students gain from principled repetition before studying and developing on their own, requiring less direction with proficiency. For me, Judi Dench delivers every line perfectly and that everyone else in the room is hardly keeping up, even if they deliver an otherwise great performance. She's simply unrivaled.

This is one of the greatest things I’ve ever seen.