Russell Brand: Shakespeare is all about sex and violence

The comedian and actor, who stars in the new movie adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, said that children shy away from the plays because they seem too “dense’, but that teachers should explain what the stories are really about.

Appearing on Daybreak, he said: 'I studied Shakespeare at school, yes. I think sometimes in British schools they kind of thrust it upon you – I had some good teachers in my school, I don't want to put it down – but the way Shakespeare is presented to you, it just seems dense.

'If they said to you, 'This is about sex and violence and in the time when it was written it was a very bawdy form of entertainment', like you could go to a public execution or see a Shakespeare play.”

He added: 'Also it's not meant to be read, it's meant to be performed and that's why it's really great to see it in this format. [Director] Julie Taymor has done such a good job; it's so visceral and the funny bits are funny and the dramatic bits are intense.'

Talking about the film, he said: 'There are really good looking kids in it, like Reeve Carney – that young lad is gorgeous – and the girl he is opposite, Felicity [Jones].

'They are people that have the sort of qualities that Twilight stars have. Then you have the gravitas of Dame Helen [Mirren], but she rejects that title whenever I give it to her. She is just so cool, she is a bird from Essex deep down, but she is also Dame Helen Mirren.'