Do you know your William Shakespeare facts?

He is regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and his plays are performed more than those of any other playwright.

His work has been translated into every major language and 400 years after his death, there are over 60 million Google mentions on the subject of William Shakespeare.

Yet despite this, a recent survey of 2,000 adults in the UK, commissioned by Universal Pictures (UK) to mark the DVD release of The Hollow Crown, revealed some shocking results.

- Almost a third of under-12’s admitted to not knowing who Shakespeare is.

- Five per cent of 18-34 year olds thought Shakespeare’s most famous play was Cinderella, and 2 per cent of the same group thought that Shakespeare himself was a fictional character.

- An amazing four per cent of the British population didn’t know Shakespeare was a British playwright, and 27 per cent of adults confessed to having never read a Shakespeare play (this figure jumping to 32 per cent for the over-55’s).

- Londoners fell well below the national average when 12 per cent (compared to four per cent nationally) failed to correctly answer that Shakespeare was a British playwright. Of that statistic, six per cent of Londoners believed that Shakespeare was an artist, two per cent thought he was a Roman Centurion and two per cent recalled that he was a celebrity. A further one per cent thought he was a cartoon character and the remaining one per cent had no knowledge of Shakespeare at all.

- 23 per cent of Londoners also incorrectly answered that Shakespeare was from London, not Stratford upon Avon.

- A staggering 49 per cent of British adults are unable to complete the Shakespeare line “O Romeo, Romeo...!” (wherefore art thou Romeo?).

- However 49 per cent of Britons identified Macbeth as Shakespeare’s most recognisable character.

- Increasingly however, it transpires that Britons are looking to television for the arts and their Shakespeare fix with 63 per cent of Britons admitting to learning about Shakespeare through television, and not school or traditional educational outlets.

Tom Hiddleston, star of The Hollow Crown believes the dramas make Shakespeare easier to understand for a younger audience and hopes what makes these films accessible and immediate to a contemporary audience is that the dialogue is spoken very differently, with a fluency and an ease. Shakespeare is at its best when spoken as if it was written yesterday.

Sharing this sentiment, Jeremy Irons believes that Shakespeare should not be taught at school because so many people are put off Shakespeare at school.  Drama has to be seen it in order to be moving and that often sparks an organic interest in the text.

The Hollow Crown DVD re-imagines the classic tetralogy of William Shakespeare’s spell-binding plays; Richard II, Henry IV parts I & 2 and Henry V exploring themes of succession, power, corruption and greed in a singular sweeping production. The stellar cast includes, the Kings, played by Ben Whishaw, Jeremy Irons and Tom Hiddleston, who are supported by some of the best Shakespearean actors of our time.