OSCAR winning actress Dame Judi Dench has signed up as a patron of the new Shakespeare theatre coming to Prescot.

The decorated actress has given her support to the proposed theatre and has even donated the set of the film Shakespeare in Love to the Shakespeare North project.

The multi BAFTA-winning thespian said she particularly supported the project because her husband, the late actor Michael Williams came from nearby Liverpool.

In a letter penned on New Years' Eve which was published on the Shakespeare North website, the actress wrote: "This year I have celebrated Shakespeare’s life with the Royal Shakespeare Company and HRH Prince Charles at Stratford…..but amid all the celebrations one thing has pleased me above all and that is the permission granted in the Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley on Merseyside for the erection of The Shakespeare North Playhouse".

The planned theatre was given the green light by Knowsley's planning committee last April and will stand a few metres from the town's original Elizabethan theatre.

Dame Judi also said: "The Shakespeare North project is important to me because I believe that great Shakespearean performances can change lives and because I want to help offer hope, vision and an enhanced educational experience to the children of Knowsley and Liverpool.

"From 2020 everyone in Britain should be able to follow a Shakespeare journey from London to Stratford and then to Knowsley, but only if you join me in supporting this dream".

The James Bond star added: "I have become a Patron of Shakespeare North and have donated the set of the film Shakespeare in Love to Shakespeare North".