--- title: Sir Ian McKellen to British Schoolchildren: "You Shall Not Pass!" description: The iconic actor recited his most iconic line from The Lord of the Rings trilogy to a group of delighted students canonical: https://time.com/3517918/sir-ian-mckellen-lord-of-the-rings-students/ author: Eric Dodds article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-10-17T20:10:54.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:13:53.566Z og:title: Watch Sir Ian McKellen Tell Students What Happens If They Don't Study og:description: "If you don't revise properly... You Shall Not Pass!" og:url: https://time.com/3517918/sir-ian-mckellen-lord-of-the-rings-students/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt822a363172ce1aa9/6987617c3c16392c6c44f202/451927031.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: "No Man's Land" & "Waiting For Godot" Opening Night - After Party og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch Sir Ian McKellen Tell Students What Happens If They Don't Study twitter:description: "If you don't revise properly... You Shall Not Pass!" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt822a363172ce1aa9/6987617c3c16392c6c44f202/451927031.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Watch Sir Ian McKellen Tell Students What Happens If They Don't Study > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. by [Eric Dodds](https://time.com/author/eric-dodds/) ## Eric Dodds Oct 17, 2014 8:10 PM UTC  Sir Ian McKellen attends the "No Man's Land" & "Waiting For Godot" Opening Night after party at the Bryant Park Grill in New York City on Nov. 24, 2013. Sir Ian McKellen attends the "No Man's Land" & "Waiting For Godot" Opening Night after party at the Bryant Park Grill in New York City on Nov. 24, 2013. Walter McBride—WireImage/Getty Images by [Eric Dodds](https://time.com/author/eric-dodds/) ## Eric Dodds Oct 17, 2014 8:10 PM UTC **Updated Oct. 20, 10:30 a.m. ET** Sir Ian McKellen — who has earned a reputation of late for showing up in [random places and doing awesome things](http://www.buzzfeed.com/lyapalater/times-patrick-stewart-and-ian-mckellen-proved-they-are-th#3437seo) (typically with his pal and sometimes co-star Patrick Stewart) — stopped by the Chew Valley School in England today and addressed the assembled masses. Instead of rambling on as school speakers tend to do, McKellen simply stood by a window and asked, “If you don’t do your revision properly, do you know what will happen?” After waiting a beat, the _Lord of the Rings_ star summoned his best Gandalf impersonation and bellowed, “[You. Shall. Not. Pass!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJZZNHekEQw)” (Sidenote: Is it still an impersonation if you’re impersonating a character that you yourself originated?) [**_5 Must-Haves Before You Head Back to College_**](http://motto.time.com/4447131/college-packing-checklist/) Anyhow, it’s entirely unclear why exactly McKellen was at the school, but any excuse for him to belt out [iconic declarations](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWEpWb1Nt8E) from _Lord of the Rings_ in front of a bunch of giddy British schoolchildren is a good one. _Update: According to the_ [_Chew Valley School website_](http://www.chewvalleyschool.co.uk/News/Sir-Ian-McKellen-Visits-Chew-Valley/)_, “The visit was a celebration of the tremendous work the Equalities Team have been doing for more than a year now in promoting human rights, opposing bullying and in particular challenging homophobic language and behaviour in school.” McKellen confirmed the purpose of his visit_ [_on Twitter_](https://twitter.com/IanMcKellen/status/523841141054001152)_._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3517918/sir-ian-mckellen-lord-of-the-rings-students/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3517918/sir-ian-mckellen-lord-of-the-rings-students/"},"headline":"Watch Sir Ian McKellen Tell Students What Happens If They Don't Study","datePublished":"2014-10-17T20:10:54.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:13:53.566Z","description":"The acclaimed actor told assembled schoolchildren, \"If you don't do your revision properly, do you know what will happen?... 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