Helen Mirren Remembers… As You Like It

Dame Helen Mirren looks back on one of her earliest TV roles, playing Rosalind in the BBC’s 1978 production of the Shakespeare comedy As You Like It - “a wonderful study of young love and great fun” - filmed before she became a household name or an international star. Mirren reflects on the phenomenon of cross-dressing in the play - a recognised device in Shakespearean theatre - and why it’s interesting to investigate those roles in the present day, when the audience is alive to the complexity of gender. She is thrilled to see women playing the role of Hamlet. Finally, she explores the quality of the roles Shakespeare wrote for women, and explains why she thinks the Bard will be as significant in 100 years’ time as he is today.