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Helen Mirren in the 1980s version of Cymbeline
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Now the corporation aims to upstage its own classics by producing new versions of all 37 of the Bard's plays.
It has enlisted Sam Mendes, Oscar-winning director of American Beauty and Road to Perdition, and his Neal Street company to produce the entire canon over a 12-year period.
Some of the country's biggest stars – including Kate Winslet, who is married to Mendes, Dame Judi Dench, Sir Ian McKellen, Jude Law, Dame Helen Mirren, and James McAvoy – are being tipped to take part in what will be one of the BBC's most expensive and ambitious drama series.
With quality television drama costing up to £900,000 an hour, the final bill could touch £100?million.
Mendes, a former director of the Donmar Warehouse theatre in London, who took the original idea to the corporation and who will himself direct several of the productions, said the series promised to be extrordinary.
He said: "The moment I took the idea to the BBC, they grasped it with both hands, and in a sense they are the only people who could help pull it off.
"Thirty-seven plays over 12 years. Just think of the fantastic array of actors and directors, and of course the plays, those incredible plays.
"And then think of them committed to film as a single entity.
"There are lots of details still to be ironed out, and I don't know yet which of the plays I will direct myself."
Timothy West, who starred as Cardinal Wolsey in the BBC's 1979 adaptation of Henry VIII said there was no reason why the new series shouldn't be a success.
"I think it is a good idea in theory. I had a very good time on Henry VIII, which responded very well to television as a medium."
But, he said, it was vital that any new productions stuck to the playwright's original text and only relied on casts with experience of classical acting.
"People try to 'improve' the text, but I don't think the audience has a problem with the language if it is done well.
"The question is, are they turning out good Shakespearean actors who are recognisable to television audiences? People who are coming into the business now and who are making their names early haven't had experience with the classical text. The question is, can they cope?"
The new series marks a radical departure for the BBC, which in recent years has shied away from traditional interpretations of the Bard's works.
In 2005, the corporation was accused of dumbing down when it produced new versions of Shakespeare plays which were shorn of the original dialogue.
The BBC is discussing a co-financing deal for the new series with the American broadcasting giant HBO.
News of the new venture has been welcomed by many Shakespeare enthusiasts, who believe that the first series has become dated.
The treasurer of the British Shakespeare Association, Stuart Hampton-Reeves, said it was important that modern audiences weren't bombarded with too much text. He said: "Modern audiences are used to immediate language, plot delivery and fast cutaways. The best Shakespeare adaptations have cut the text in a way that is suitable for TV."
But Sir Jonathan Miller, the acclaimed dramatist who produced three plays in the original cycle, last night questioned the wisdom of the project. He said BBC commissioning editors were guilty of "cultural illiteracy".
He said: "I am not certain it was that interesting an enterprise when it happened the first time around. The BBC were enslaved to their American sponsors and we were unable to do anything adventurous with the plays. They were all very historic. It was like Stratford upon Shakespeare."
He added: "What worries me is that the BBC can't see beyond the big names like Shakespeare and Austen. It is now only interested in literary celebrity. As a result, there is a vast body of English drama which is being ignored."
A BBC spokeswoman said: "We are at an early stage at the moment, but we are planning to do the complete of works of Shakespeare with Sam Mendes and his Neal Street production company."
Who was who the last time
Derek Jacobi: title role in Hamlet
Nicol Williamson: title role in Macbeth
Warren Mitchell: Shylock in The Merchant of Venice
Robert Lindsay and Cherie Lunghi: Benedick and Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing
Bob Hoskins and Anthony Hopkins: Iago and title role in Othello
John Cleese and Sarah Badel: Petruchio and Katharina in The Taming of the Shrew
Michael Hordern: Prospero in The Tempest
Jonathan Pryce: title role in Timon of Athens