VIDEO: RSC Artistic Director Gregory Doran Delivers This Year's Dimbleby Lecture: 'Is Shakespeare Chinese?'

Regarded as one of his country's great pioneering journalists, Richard Dimbleby joined BBC radio during World War II and as the broadcast company's first war correspondent, giving eyewitness accounts of pivotal battles, including the D-Day landings at Normandy beach.

His long-running television program, PANORAMA, was popular for insightful interviews of public figures and he was a welcome, familiar face reporting results on election nights.

After his passing in 1965, the BBC began broadcasting an annual Dimbleby Lecture in his honor, delivered by a notable figure in business or politics.

The first lecture, delivered in 1972 by Lord Annan, Provost of University College in London, was titled "What are Universities for, Anyway?" Subsequent speakers have included Tate Gallery Director Nicholas Serota ("Who's Afraid of Modern Art?"), former United States President Bill Clinton ("The Struggle For The Soul of The 21st Century") and Charles, Prince of Wales ("Facing The Future").

This year's speaker was Gregory Doran, Artistic Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company since 2012. His lecture's title, "Is Shakespeare Chinese?, "is not to be taken literally, of course, but speaks to the universality of The Bard's perceptions into the human mind as he tells his stories of love, war, politics and social issues.

"Open your ears," he advises at the beginning of his speech, quoting HENRY II, PART II. Though anecdotes and quotes from a lifetime of working with Shakespeare, Doran explores how The Bard's words and stories still resonate with people from around the globe 400 years later.