Dench's contribution was a staging of Much Ado About Nothing, set in the Napoleonic era, which starred Kenneth Branagh and Samantha Bond as Benedick and Beatrice.

Branagh achieved some early measure of success in his native Northern Ireland for his role as the title character in the BBC's Play for Today trilogy known as the Billy Plays ( 1982 – 84 ), written by Graham Reid and set in Belfast.

The musical piece played during the torch lighting ceremony was entitled " Caliban's Dream ", and Caliban's monologue from Act 3, Scene ii was quoted by Kenneth Branagh in character as Isambard Kingdom Brunel at the start of the Industrial Revolution set piece.

*" South Bank "-A cross between The South Bank Show and South Park set on the South Bank in London, featuring Melvyn Bragg / Stan Marsh, Alan Yentob / Kyle Broflovski, Mark Lawson / Eric Cartman and Kenneth Branagh / Kenny McCormick.

Other contemporary British film directors include Paul W. S. Anderson, Andrea Arnold, Richard Attenborough, Kenneth Branagh, Danny Boyle, Terence Davies, Mike Figgis, Terry Gilliam, Tom Hooper, Mike Leigh, Ken Loach, Sam Mendes, Alan Parker, Sally Potter, Lynne Ramsay, Guy Ritchie, Michael Winterbottom, Edgar Wright, Joe Wright and Matthew Vaughn.

Shakespeare experts Sir John Gielgud and Kenneth Branagh consider the definitive rendition of the Bard's tragic tale to be the 1964 Russian film Gamlet () based on a translation by Boris Pasternak and directed by Grigori Kozintsev, with a score by Dmitri Shostakovich.

* In the commentary for the 2011 film Thor, director Kenneth Branagh hypothesized that Thor's Hammer is composed of neutronium, since it is explicitly stated in the film that the hammer was forged from a dying star.

The second major film, directed by and starring Kenneth Branagh in 1989, attempts to give a more realistic evocation of the period and lays more emphasis on the horrors of war.

** Henry V ( 1989 film ), a film adaptation of Shakespeare's play, directed by Kenneth Branagh

Sir Kenneth Charles Branagh ( ; born 10 December 1960 ) is an actor and film director from Northern Ireland.

* Kenneth Branagh ( born 1960 ), actor and film director

On 7 September 2006, Kenneth Branagh announced at the Venice Film Festival his new film of the play, with the screenplay by Nobel laureate Harold Pinter.

Peter's Friends is a 1992 British comedy-drama film written by Rita Rudner and her husband Martin Bergman, and directed and produced by Kenneth Branagh.

At the time the film was made, Branagh was married to Thompson, who had also dated Laurie during their university days.

Adapted scenes in flashback from Henry IV are included in the 1989 film version of Henry V ( 1989 ) with Robbie Coltrane portraying Sir John Falstaff and Kenneth Branagh playing the young Prince Hal.

Branagh cast the film without much regard for singing or dancing ability ; as in Woody Allen's Everyone Says I Love You, the film was meant to highlight energy and enthusiasm rather than smooth competence.

Chaney is the subject of a documentary feature called Lon Chaney: A Thousand Faces ( 2000 ), produced by silent film expert Kevin Brownlow and narrated by Kenneth Branagh.

Everett's break came in 1981 at the Greenwich Theatre and later West End production of Another Country, playing a gay schoolboy opposite Kenneth Branagh, followed by a film version in 1984 with Cary Elwes and Colin Firth.

He allowed Kenneth Branagh to film his production of Hamlet at the ducal palace of Blenheim, and appeared in a small cameo in the motion picture.

Significant changes were made to Dr. Loveless ( played by Kenneth Branagh in the film ).

He was offended at the racial aspects of the film, as well as the casting of Branagh as a double amputee, rather than a little-person actor, in the role of Loveless.

* In 2004, a film version was released, starring Kenneth Branagh, Freddie Highmore, Zoë Wanamaker, Jonathan Bailey, and Norman Wisdom, with Eddie Izzard as the voice of the Psammead.

The film Shackleton ( 2002 ) starred Kenneth Branagh and was shot on location in the Arctic winning the BAFTA for Best Series and Best Costume, and the Radio Times Audience award for ‘ Best Drama 2002 ’, it was also nominated for 7 Primetime Emmys, winning for music and photography.

The last film shown at La Charette was a black-tie premiere of Danny Boyle's Alien Love Triangle attended by Kenneth Branagh and organised by Observer film critic Mark Kermode.

The other six included: Orson Welles ( Citizen Kane ), Laurence Olivier ( Hamlet ), Woody Allen ( Annie Hall ), Kenneth Branagh ( Henry V ), Kevin Costner ( Dances with Wolves ), and Roberto Benigni ( Life Is Beautiful ).

In 2007, the BBC issued The Judi Dench Collection, DVDs of eight television dramas: Talking to a Stranger quartet ( 1966 ), Keep an Eye on Amélie ( 1973 ), The Cherry Orchard ( 1981 ), Going Gently ( 1981 ), Ghosts ( with Kenneth Branagh, Natasha Richardson and Michael Gambon, 1987 ), Make and Break ( with Robert Hardy, 1987 ), Can You Hear Me Thinking?

Branagh became a major presence in the media and on the British stage when Renaissance collaborated with Birmingham Rep for a 1988 touring season of three Shakespeare plays under the umbrella title of Renaissance Shakespeare on the Road, which also played a repertory season at the Phoenix Theatre in London.

It featured directorial debuts for Judi Dench with Much Ado About Nothing ( starring Branagh and Samantha Bond

In his later years, Gielgud played the Ghost of Hamlet's Father in productions of the play, first to Richard Burton's Melancholy Dane on the Broadway stage which Gielgud directed in 1964, then on television with Richard Chamberlain, and finally in a radio production starring Gielgud's protégé Kenneth Branagh.

He continued to perform Shakespeare, and appeared with Kenneth Branagh in Henry V ( 1989 ) and as Polonius to Mel Gibson's Hamlet ( 1990 ).

Holm was reunited with Kenneth Branagh in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein ( 1994 ), playing the father of Branagh's Victor Frankenstein.

Alexander portrayed Eleanor Roosevelt in two television productions, Eleanor and Franklin ( 1976 ) and Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years ( 1977 ); and she played FDR's mother, Sara Delano Roosevelt, in HBO's Warm Springs ( 2005 ) with Kenneth Branagh and Cynthia Nixon, a role which garnered her an Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Phyllida Law is Thompson's mother and along with Richard Briers, Imelda Staunton and Alex Lowe appeared with Branagh and Thompson in Branagh's adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing the following year.

In an interview, Branagh stated " Well, you know, a rather distinguished critic said he was annoyed with my performance because I'd clearly played Iago gay.

As a result of its poor commercial performance, Miramax shelved its three-picture deal with Branagh, who subsequently returned to Shakespeare with As You Like It in 2006.

Branagh became interested in the play during his 1984 season with the Royal Shakespeare Company, when he had played the King of Navarre.

Branagh reversed the philosophy he had used with Hamlet ( that is, to keep every word of the original ), and instead made major cuts in the play's text.

" He concluded, " Although Love's Labour's Lost does not score the kind of complete success that Branagh has achieved with his other Shakespeare adaptations, it is a welcome addition, not only because it represents the first time the play has been brought to the screen, but because it shows the lengths to which the director is willing to stretch the envelope.

Famous examples include Henry V, directed and starring both Laurence Olivier and Kenneth Branagh, Richard III by Olivier and Richard Loncraine ( starring Ian McKellen ) and Henry IV, Part I and Part II combined into Chimes at Midnight ( with some scenes from Henry V, also known as Falstaff ) directed by and starring Orson Welles.

In 1998 she appeared in Woody Allen's Celebrity with Kenneth Branagh and Leonardo DiCaprio.

He attended RADA in the late 1970s, studying alongside Kenneth Branagh ; the two would work together on many occasions later in their careers.