A poster of Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo+Juliet

William Shakespeare: what do we know of the man? Practically nothing. We can’t even say what he looks like with any degree of certainty. As Bill Bryson points out in his brilliant 2007 book Shakespeare, there are only about 100 documents relating to the Bard and his immediate family and these are the only physical evidence we have, the only clues, to the person of Willm Shaksp, William Shakesp, Wm Shaksp, William Shakspere, Willm Shakspere or William Shakspeare. According to Bryson, he never once used the spelling “now universally attached to his name”.

Although we have embarrassingly little evidence of his existence, we do, however, have the greatest legacy we could ask for: his canon. For those who love his work — his characters, his mastery of language (and emotion), his talent for telling a good yarn — this is all that is needed.

William Shakespeare represents the pinnacle of English drama, we are told. But with this survey, we want to discover what people really think of Shakespeare today. What do they regard as his greatest lines, his best-loved plays and his most villainous scoundrels? Also who have been the great interpreters: the actors, directors, film directors who have shown the playwright at his best? Remember Al Pacino’s Looking for Richard?

Who has been the most tortured of Hamlets? It is easy to think only in terms of recent successes. David Tennant may be the actor who springs to mind, but what of Jonathan Pryce, Kenneth Branagh, Laurence Olivier and the man who laid so much of the groundwork for our latter-day interpretations of the tormented prince, John Gielgud?

He played the part more than 500 times — yet Gielgud regarded Prospero as his favourite role. From this to Vanessa Redgrave’s androgynous shipwrecked duke in The Tempest on the stage of Shakespeare’s Globe on the South Bank there have been notable interpretations along the way.

The play’s the thing... today as much as four centuries ago. Shakespeare continues to make news. A survey by The Sunday Telegraph shows the enduring power and relevance of the Bard.

Murder, revenge, treachery, madness and moral corruption. It seems we all enjoy a good Shakespearean tragedy.

Hamlet, the play voted Shakespeare’s greatest in The Sunday Telegraph survey of more than 300 actors, writers, directors and producers, is thought to have been written between 1599 and 1601, and the four-and-a-half hour epic beat King Lear and the lighter offering of A Midsummer Night’s Dream to the top spot.

The play’s eponymous, and enigmatic, central character also led the field as our voters’ favourite hero.

“What list could exclude Hamlet?” asked Tim Pigott Smith, one of the many illustrious contributors to the survey. Some of the biggest names in British theatre took part: Patrick Stewart (actor), Nicholas Hytner, the director of the National Theatre, Sir Trevor Nunn, the former head of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) and the National Theatre, and Sir Richard Eyre, the former head of the National Theatre.

Supporters of Hamlet included Sir Trevor (though only the man and not as his favourite play — this honour went to The Winter’s Tale for “its tragedy, comedy and magic realism”), Sir Richard, Fox, Pigott Smith and Suzman. “It has everything,” said Pigott Smith, “plus some profound thoughts about staying alive.” Suzman described it as the most original play ever written, and Fox, now 71, said he had played the role three times and was “moderately ready to give it another go”.

There is one actor who will forever be associated with the role: Kenneth Branagh, who produced a full-length version of Hamlet for the big screen in 1996.

Branagh was the comfortable — and in some quarters controversial — winner in the category of the “living person” who has “contributed most to the enduring popularity and appeal of Shakespeare”. The actor and director, who has adapted five of the Bard’s plays for film and was Iago in a movie version of Othello, won 30 per cent of the votes. He beat Sir Peter Hall, the founder of the Royal Shakespeare Company, and Mark Rylance, the former artistic director of Shakespeare’s Globe, in London, who was ranked third.

Simon Nadar, an actor who took part in the survey, summed up the feelings of many when he described Branagh “as the natural successor to Olivier by keeping Shakespeare in the popular consciousness”.

There was little surprise in Dame Judi Dench leading the best actress category by a substantial margin. Her nearest rivals were Harriet Walter and Emma Thompson. Thompson’s relatively strong showing is despite the fact that she has done very little Shakespeare. But her popularity with many voters rested on her “incredible” and “superb” performance as Beatrice in Branagh’s 1993 film adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing.

And is it any wonder that Sir Ian McKellen is regarded as our voters’ favourite actor? He has taken the title role in Hamlet, Macbeth, Coriolanus, Richard III and, of course, King Lear.

Shakespeare’s treacherous Iago emerges as the character we love to hate. He was a convincing winner in the best villain category with a massive 45 per cent of the vote. Richard III, who is nearly always named as best villain in polls of Shakespeare, had to be content with only 25 per cent of the vote — a sign perhaps that audiences are becoming increasingly sceptical about Shakespeare’s vision of the monarch.

Characters from Twelfth Night dominated the funniest character category. Sir Trevor described it “as the most perfect of comedies”.

Peter Brook’s 1970 RSC production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream received the most votes in the best performance category, though there was strong support for directors such as Sir Peter Hall (Antony and Cleopatra with Judi Dench and Anthony Hopkins, and Hamlet with David Warner), Trevor Nunn (Macbeth with Judi Dench and Ian McKellen, and Hamlet with Ben Whishaw and Imogen Stubbs), Nicholas Hytner (Much Ado About Nothing with Simon Russell Beale and Zoe Wannamaker), and Richard Eyre (Hamlet with Daniel Day-Lewis, who notoriously was unable to continue with the show after collapsing in the middle of the ghost scene, and Ian Charleson, who took over from Day-Lewis to great acclaim).

But there was also good news for the still relatively young Shakespeare’s Globe, which had 13 of its productions selected by voters. Its 400th anniversary production of Twelfth Night, which was staged at the Middle Temple, was actually ranked number two.

Hamlet was the play with the most nominations in this category with voters choosing no fewer than 30 different productions from across the decades.

Alongside the statistics, we asked voters to nominate favourite lines, insults, speeches... Unsurprisingly, there were choices from nearly every one of Shakespeare’s 37 plays. Anthony Horowitz thought King Lear contained the best insult in Kent’s line to Oswald, declaring him superfluous to society: “Thou whoreson zed! Thou unnecessary letter!”

While Nicholas Hytner suggested Rosalind’s stunning put-down to Phoebe in As You Like It: “Sell when you can: You are not for all markets.”

In conclusion, we couldn’t avoid the question of authorship. And there was good news for Shakespeare, the man, with a massive 74 per cent of the sample dismissing conspiracy theories and insisting that he wrote all the plays attributed to him.

Sir Richard Eyre summed up many of our contributors’ feelings and described as “nonsense” the idea that anyone else had written these incredible works.

Fiona Matthias and Chris Hastings,

The Sunday Telegraph

BEST PLAY

Hamlet: 14%

A Midsummer Night’s Dream: 11%

King Lear: 10%

Macbeth: 9%

Twelfth Night: 7%

Romeo and Juliet: 7%

Othello: 5%

Much Ado About Nothing: 5%

The Tempest: 4%

The Winter’s Tale: 4%

LEAST FAVOURITE PLAY

The Taming of the Shrew: 6%

A Midsummer Night’s Dream: 5.7%

Titus Andronicus: 5.7%

Timon of Athens: 5.7%

The Tempest: 5%

Henry VIII: 4.3%

The Merry Wives of Windsor: 4%

Measure for Measure: 4%

The Merchant of Venice: 3.4%

As You Like It: 3.4%

Romeo and Juliet: 3.4%

FAVOURITE HERO

Hamlet (Hamlet): 26%

Henry V (Henry V): 14%

Benedick (Much Ado About Nothing): 11%

Romeo (Romeo and Juliet): 5%

Mercutio (Romeo and Juliet): 4%

Macbeth (Macbeth): 3%

Mark Antony (Julius Caesar): 3%

Prince Hal (Henry IV Part I): 2%

Othello (Othello): 2%

Petruchio (The Taming of the Shrew): 2%

Macduff (Macbeth): 2%

FAVOURITE HEROINE

Beatrice (Much Ado About Nothing): 18%

Rosalind (As You Like It): 13%

Viola (Twelfth Night): 12%

Portia (The Merchant of Venice): 9%

Juliet (Romeo and Juliet): 8%

Cleopatra (Antony and Cleopatra): 6%

Katharina (Taming of the Shrew): 6%

Lady Macbeth (Macbeth): 4%

Cordelia (King Lear): 3%

Imogen (Cymbeline): 3%

BEST ACTOR

Ian McKellen: 10%

Kenneth Branagh: 9%

Laurence Olivier: 6%

Mark Rylance: 6%

John Gielgud: 4%

BEST ACTRESS

Judi Dench: 18%

Emma Thompson: 4%

Peggy Ashcroft: 3%

Vanessa Redgrave: 3%

Helen Mirren: 3%

FUNNIEST CHARACTER

Bottom (A Midsummer Night’s Dream): 19%

Falstaff (Henry IV Part I, Henry IV Part II, and The Merry Wives of Windsor): 12%

Malvolio (Twelfth Night): 11%

Sir Andrew Aguecheek (Twelfth Night): 5%

Dogberry (Much Ado About Nothing): 4%

Benedick (Much Ado About Nothing): 4%

Sir Toby Belch (Twelfth Night): 3%

Beatrice (Much Ado About Nothing): 2%

The Nurse (Romeo and Juliet): 2%

Feste (Twelfth Night): 2%

BEST VILLAIN

Iago (Othello): 45%

Richard III (Richard III): 25%

Lady Macbeth (Macbeth): 7%

Macbeth (Macbeth): 5%

Edmund (King Lear): 4%

Tybalt (Romeo and Juliet): 2%

Shylock (The Merchant of Venice): 2%

Aaron, the Moor (Titus Andronicus): 2%

Angelo (Measure for Measure): 1%

Claudius (Hamlet): 1%

LIVING PERSON WHO HAS CONTRIBUTED MOST TO SHAKESPEARE'S POPULARITY AND APPEAL

Kenneth Branagh: 30%

Sir Peter Hall: 12%

Mark Rylance: 7%

Sir Trevor Nunn: 5%

Sir Ian McKellen: 3%

Baz Luhrmann: 3%

John Barton: 3%

David Tennant: 3%

Gregory Doran/Patrick Stewart/Dame Judi Dench/Barrie Rutter (each): 2%

BEST THEATRICAL PRODUCTION

1) A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1970), dir. Peter Brook for the RSC

2) Twelfth Night (2002), “Master of Play” – Tim Carroll, for Shakespeare’s Globe

3) King Lear (1962), dir. Peter Brook for the RSC

4) Macbeth (1976), dir. Trevor Nunn for the RSC

5) Hamlet (2001), dir. Peter Brook for The Young Vic

BEST FILM ADAPTATION

Romeo+Juliet (1996), dir. Baz Luhrmann: 48%

Much Ado About Nothing (1993), dir. Kenneth Branagh: 10%

Henry V (1944), dir. Laurence Olivier: 9%

Henry V (1989), dir. Kenneth Branagh: 6%

Richard III (1995), dir. Richard Loncraine: 5%

Hamlet (1990), dir. Franco Zeffirelli: 4%

Hamlet (Russian-language version) (1964), dir. Grigori Kozintsev: 4%

Romeo and Juliet (1968), dir. Franco Zeffirelli: 4%

Hamlet (1996), dir. Kenneth Branagh: 3%

Throne of Blood (Japanese take on Macbeth) (1957), dir. Akira Kurosawa: 2%