Judi Dench joins RSC Shakespeare festival

Dame Judi Dench and Sir Ian McKellen are to take part in a festival in which every play, sonnet and long poem written by Shakespeare will be staged.

The year-long festival, called The Complete Works, will be staged by the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford- upon-Avon from April next year.

It will be the first time all of the Bard's 37 pieces have been presented at one event.