These are very different people with rich and diverse careers, but they have, apart from their age, one thing in common: a lifelong devotion to theatre that, I suspect, few of their juniors will ever match.
The paradox of Sir Ian is that his global fame rests largely on his performance as Gandalf in the films of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, but I would argue that few people are more dedicated to theatre and especially to the idea of its regional vitality.
Sir Ian learned his craft as an actor in rep theatres in Coventry and Ipswich; I first spotted him at Nottingham Playhouse in 1963, when he was a sensational Aufidius to John Neville’s Coriolanus. I’ve never forgotten his howl of pain over the dead body of his military rival.
Over the years, Sir Ian has constantly repaid his debt to the regions. In 1978 , he directed a nationwide RSC tour of Twelfth Night and Three Sisters and did a season at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, where he played Prospero and Noël Coward’s vain actor-manager, Garry Essendine, in Present Laughter.
Actually, I can’t imagine anyone less like Coward’s metropolitan narcissist than Sir Ian. The conclusive proof came from his decision to tour his one-man show to 80 theatres across the UK in his birthday year. Although it’s about to do a season at London’s Harold Pinter Theatre, its prime purpose has been to raise funds for appropriate charities at each of the venues to which it has toured.
Denne historien er fra September 18, 2019-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra September 18, 2019-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Save our family farms
IT Tremains to be seen whether the Government will listen to the more than 20,000 farming people who thronged Whitehall in central London on November 19 to protest against changes to inheritance tax that could destroy countless family farms, but the impact of the good-hearted, sombre crowds was immediate and positive.
A very good dog
THE Spanish Pointer (1766–68) by Stubbs, a landmark painting in that it is the artist’s first depiction of a dog, has only been exhibited once in the 250 years since it was painted.
The great astral sneeze
Aurora Borealis, linked to celestial reindeer, firefoxes and assassinations, is one of Nature's most mesmerising, if fickle displays and has made headlines this year. Harry Pearson finds out why
'What a good boy am I'
We think of them as the stuff of childhood, but nursery rhymes such as Little Jack Horner tell tales of decidedly adult carryings-on, discovers Ian Morton
Forever a chorister
The music-and way of living-of the cabaret performer Kit Hesketh-Harvey was rooted in his upbringing as a cathedral chorister, as his sister, Sarah Sands, discovered after his death
Best of British
In this collection of short (5,000-6,000-word) pen portraits, writes the author, 'I wanted to present a number of \"Great British Commanders\" as individuals; not because I am a devotee of the \"great man, or woman, school of history\", but simply because the task is interesting.' It is, and so are Michael Clarke's choices.
Old habits die hard
Once an antique dealer, always an antique dealer, even well into retirement age, as a crop of interesting sales past and future proves
It takes the biscuit
Biscuit tins, with their whimsical shapes and delightful motifs, spark nostalgic memories of grandmother's sweet tea, but they are a remarkably recent invention. Matthew Dennison pays tribute to the ingenious Victorians who devised them
It's always darkest before the dawn
After witnessing a particularly lacklustre and insipid dawn on a leaden November day, John Lewis-Stempel takes solace in the fleeting appearance of a rare black fox and a kestrel in hot pursuit of a pipistrelle bat
Tarrying in the mulberry shade
On a visit to the Gainsborough Museum in Sudbury, Suffolk, in August, I lost my husband for half an hour and began to get nervous. Fortunately, an attendant had spotted him vanishing under the cloak of the old mulberry tree in the garden.
