Queens of the Royal Shakespeare Company – in pictures
As Helen Mirren looks back at her career in a Talking Shakespeare event online on 23 November, we celebrate some of the stars’ regal performances for the RSC
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Elizabeth Sellars as Queen Elizabeth in Richard III, 1961
Photograph: Angus McBean/RSC
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Judi Dench as Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, directed by Peter Hall in 1962
Photograph: Holte Photographic/Shakespeare Birthplace Trust
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Peggy Ashcroft as Queen Margaret in The Wars of the Roses, 1963
Photograph: Reg Wilson/RSC
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Judi Dench as Queen Hermione in The Winter’s Tale, directed by Trevor Nunn in 1969
Photograph: Reg Wilson/RSC
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Peggy Ashcroft plays Queen Katharine in Henry VIII, in 1969
Photograph: Reg Wilson/RSC
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Helen Mirren as Lady Macbeth alongside Nicol Williamson, directed by Trevor Nunn in 1974
Photograph: Reg Wilson/RSC
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Helen Mirren as Queen Margaret and Alan Howard in Henry VI part II at the Aldwych, London, in 1978
Photograph: Donald Cooper/Alamy
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Sorcha Cusack with Helen Mirren as Cleopatra in 1982
Photograph: Joe Cocks Studio Collection/Shakespeare Birthplace Trust
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Jane Lapotaire as Queen Katherine and Paul Jesson as King Henry VIII in All Is True, in 1996
Photograph: Tristram Kenton/The Guardian
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Josette Simon as Queen Titania/Hippolyta in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, directed by Michael Boyd in 1999
Photograph: Donald Cooper/RSC
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Alan Bates (Mark Antony) and Frances de la Tour (Cleopatra) in Antony and Cleopatra, 1999
Photograph: Tristram Kenton/The Guardian
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Harriet Walter as Cleopatra in 2006
Photograph: RSC
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Ben Miles as Thomas Cromwell and Lydia Leonard as Anne Boleyn in Wolf Hall, 2014
Photograph: Tristram Kenton/The Guardian
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Emma Cunniffe, left, as Queen Anne and Natascha McElhone as Sarah Churchill in Queen Anne, directed by Natalie Abrahami, in 2015
Photograph: Manuel Harlan/RSC
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Judi Dench again plays Queen Titania in Shakespeare Live! A Midsummer Night’s Dream extract, 2016
Photograph: Helen Maybanks/RSC
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Chipo Chung plays Dido in Dido, Queen of Carthage, in 2017
Photograph: Topher McGrillis/RSC
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Josette Simon as Cleopatra, directed by Iqbal Khan in 2017
Photograph: Helen Maybanks/RSC
