Glenda Jackson has been talking about what her reaction would be if some hapless soul suggested she try out for a part, and the conversational to and fro which ensues – my disbelief, her certainty – leads to me playing a scene with one of Britain’s most outstanding actors. “Hello, Ms Jackson, we have a …
Last Tango stars Anne Reid and Derek Jacobi are in complete harmony – both on and off screen Pasada: a moment in the Argentine tango that provides an opportunity for the lady to add flourishes of her own, and where “a considerate leader will give her time to perform if she wishes”. This perfectly describes …
Jenny Agutter walks across the floor of an old, atmospheric house, let out for location work – all artful peeling walls – in South-East London, with the bearing of a dancer that she once trained to be long ago when she was sent to board, at the age of eight, at Elmhurst Ballet School. She is sixty-five and …
How apt that the train from London on the way to visit Sir Tim Rice is a throng of women in floral frocks and men in suits and boaters, dresscode for one of the highlights of the English season, the Henley Regatta. There is something so terribly English and traditional (less so in his private life), about the …
Richard Eyre’s last Lear was in 1997, the year he received his knighthood, in the National’s most intimate theatre, the Dorfman (then called the Cottesloe). Ian Holm was a brilliant, twitching, neurotically strutting, pomp-stripped king, and caused a sensation as the first Lear to rip off his clothes to become the “thing itself ”, like …
At 80, Sir Anthony Hopkin s believes he has reached the perfect age to inhabit the ancient despot who loses everything – King Lear. He’s certainly convincing as a very “foolish fond old man” who fears that he’s not in his right mind. So much so that during filming of the BBC production, dressed in a shabby …
Disguise comes in many forms and in Jez Butterworth’s case it is his London home. What confounds the visitor is the disparity between the address – a prime central location – and the appearance of the handsome Georgian townhouse. First, there’s a scruffy set of doorbells, with a handwritten note saying that the occupants are …
Forget being a queen, Rupert Everett – who was once the only gay (yeah, right) in the village of Hollywood – wants to be the Queen. “I am very into the Queen,” he says, several times. “I adore her because she’s me.” We will return, as we often do in our encounter, to Her Maj anon. We …
“Hello-ohhh,” exhales a breathy voice. “How LOVELY to be talking to you, Ginny.” There’s something spookily captivating about that particular, familiar sound – the depth, the tone, the articulation, the capital-letter emphasis, the old-fashioned pronunciation (“theatah” for theatre). It belongs to La Lumley and we are speaking ahead of the announcement of her being granted …
It is quite exhausting merely listening to Sandi Toksvig’s seven-days-a-week action-packed work schedule: imagine living it. Where to start? There is her play, Silver Linings, opening in February at the Rose Theatre in Kingston, south-west London. “I wanted to write a play for the wonderful mature actresses in this country so it stars six fabulous …