A Big City in a Small Island

Having lived in London all my life, and had an English teacher who was a wizard at getting us great theatre tickets at bargain prices, I was always at some theatre or other watching actors perform, some of whom were already famous, others of whom became famous later, and were just doing bit-parts like 5th Armed Man.

Jon Finch was in a TV sci-fi show, and was VERY popular, being so good-looking. I didn't see him on stage, but I found his phone number in the directory and had a long phone conversation with him one evening. He was charming. He went on to play Macbeth in Polanski's film.

Tom Baker was playing bit parts at The National Theatre (NT). The biggest role I saw him play was The Prince of Morocco in The Merchant of Venice. He went on to play Dr Who, of course.

After University I went to see The Seagull with Vanessa Redgrave and Jonathan Pryce (see below).

Nigel Havers was also doing bits and pieces with the Prospect Theatre Company. He has played in many comedies and dramas on large and small screens, usually as an upper class character.


Laurence Olivier needs no introduction. I saw him as Shylock at the NT.

Patrick Stewart went from Hector in Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida with The Royal Shakespeare Comany (RSC) to Jean-Luc Picard. Helen Mirren and Ben Kingsley were in the same production (see below).

Timothy West has had an illustrious career on TV and the cinema, as well as the theatre, most recently in Bleak House. In the late 1960s and early 1970s he was playing small roles with the Prospect Theatre Company.

Stephen Moore was a National Theatre player when he recorded Marvin the Paranoid Android in the original radio broadcast of The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy.

I saw Jeremy Brett in Love's Labour's Lost and The Merchant of Venice at the NT. He'd already filmed My Fair Lady (Freddie Eynsford-Hill), and went on to play Sherlock Holmes for BBC TV.

Jim Dale was already a star in the Carry On films when we went to see him in Peter Nichols's play The National Health. It was a true tour-de-force. Later it was made into a movie.

John Rhys-Davies is now famous for his roles with Harrison Ford in the Indiana Jones movies. Back then he was playing in Henry IV Parts I and II at The Mermaid Theatre.

Jonathan Pryce was already famous in the UK when he was in The Seagull with Vanessa Redgrave, but found fame worldwide in Jumping Jack Flash with Whoopi Goldberg.

Martine Shaw was in a UK TV show called The Professionals , and has since had a second bite at fame in Judge John Deed, and as Superintendant Adam Dalgleish in the TV adaptations of some of the P. D. James crime dramas. I saw him in John Osborne's Look Back In Anger with Jane Asher (see below).

Derek Jacobi was in Love's Labours Lost at the NT with Jeremy Brett. He later became famous in I, Claudius (playing Claudius) and The Brother Cadfael Mysteries, set in medieval England. He's also made many films and is now Sir Derek.

Ah, Edward Woodward, The Equalizer himself, who had the privilege of working with Our Vincent. I saw him in the NT production of Webster's play The White Devil.

Helen Mirren was Cressida in the RSC's production of Troilus and Cressida. Will she win the Best Actress Oscar tonight?

Sir Ian McKellen hadn't been knighted when I saw him as Richard II in the Prospect Theatre Company's production. We also travelled to Brighton to see him play Hamlet. We knew even then - nearly 40 years ago - that here was something special.

Recently he gave an interview in which he spoke about a previous Conservative government's Home Secretary who, some years ago, was trying to push through "Clause 28", which banned teachers from "promoting homosexuality". The Minister asked for McKellen's autograph for his daughter. McKellen wrote "Fuck you, I'm gay"!!

Jane Asher was dating Paul McCartney when we saw her in Look Back In Anger at The Royal Court Theatre.

Michele Dotrice was in Euripides' Trojan Wars plays at the Mermaid Theatre. She is pictured here as Betty, Frank Spencer's wife, in Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em, a popular slapstick comedy. She married Mr Equalizer himself, Edward Woodward. Her father Roy played Zeus in the Hercules TV programmes (n0t the films).

Ben Kingsley (now also a Sir) was Aeneas in the RSC production of Troilus and Cressida. I imagine most people associate him with his role as Gandhi in Richard Attenborough's film.

Celia Johnson had already been as famous as a person can be - she was Laura in Brief Encounter, one of the most celebrated films of all time. I saw her as Gertrude, Hamlet's mother, in a production starring Alan Bates (see below).

Christopher Timothy was playing the tiniest of bit-parts when I saw him at the NT. He went on to play vet James Herriot in the autobiographical series All Creatures Great And Small, where he was often seen with his arm apparently up a cow's rectum.

Jazz singer Cleo Laine has always been famous, it seems to me. I saw her as Hippolyta/Titania in A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Last, but not least, Alan Bates. He came to everyone's attention in Ken Russell's film Women In Love, where he wrestled naked with Oliver Reed (top). I saw him as Hamlet, rolling around on the stage and generally being extremely attractive.