Dame Judi also discussed meeting US actor Sidney Poitier, who became the first black man to win the Academy Award for best actor in 1964.

She was appearing in Amy's View in New York when Poitier came backstage after a performance. She recalled that director Richard Eyre was in her dressing room, giving her notes, when there was a knock at the door.

She said she felt as if she were in a wind tunnel when Poitier walked in, adding: "It was thrilling."

Asked what she had said to him, Dame Judi replied: "Not much, a bit of an open mouth. So charming. Very tall."

The conversation then turned to her love of Shakespeare. She recalled watching her brother play King Duncan in Macbeth when she was nine.

"He walked on and he said, 'What bloody man is that?' I thought, 'Oh my God, this is for me'. He said 'bloody', did you hear that?"

She also admitted to being "besotted" by Shakespeare's sonnets: "I just love them."

"It's the rhythm of it. It's the rhythm of your heart," she added.…