If you thought you’d already seen Dame Judi Dench at her best, we’ve got news for you. All is True is the first-class period drama that’s now available to watch on BBC iPlayer – and it really is one of Judi’s best performances. The drama chronicles the later years of playwright William Shakespeare as he comes to terms with the death of his son, Hamnet, and it’s a mesmerising watch.
Kenneth stars as Shakespeare, with Judi Dench as his wife Anne Hathaway, with whom he has a fraught relationship. The film also stars Ian McKellen as the Bard’s patron, the Earl of Southampton, while Lydia Wilson plays Shakespeare’s eldest daughter, Susanna, and Kathryn Wilder is Judith, Hamnet’s twin.
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Written by Ben Elton, All is True received critical acclaim upon release, earning a score of 73% on Rotten Tomatoes out of 142 reviews. Critics praised the humanising portrayal of the legendary playwright, as Rolling Stone deemed the film “a mesmerizing meditation on Shakespeare’s last days”.
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“Director-star Kenneth Branagh shuns the idea of the Bard as a literary rock star to find the flawed, touchingly human man inside,” the review reads.
Elsewhere, The Guardian said: “Judi Dench and Ian McKellen offer solid support in a story of Shakespeare’s home life that tiptoes between fact and fiction”, while The New York Times also celebrated the joint effort of Branagh and Elton, writing: “Between them, [they] have concocted a respectful story of loss, regret and wistful genius.”
Meanwhile, Empire said of the film: “A quiet and meditative portrait of the artist as a retiree, this lacks incident or high stakes but has an elegiac feeling of regret and reckoning that fits its subject’s twilight years.”
Also looking at Shakespeare’s relationship with his son is Chloé Zhao’s upcoming Hamnet, which will star Jessie Buckley as Agnes and Paul Mescal as the poet. The film adapts the novel of the same name by Maggie O’Farrell, who co-wrote the script with Zhao, and focuses on the strained relationship between Agnes and William following the death of their son.
All is True is available to stream now on BBC iPlayer. Hamnet is in cinemas from Friday 9th January 2026.