good. i'm returning to lamda — the london academy of music and dramatic art — which is where i studied to work with a bunch of young actors to see how their thinking process works. brian cox, succession. he's like a force of nature. wait till you see me. i'm going to be so shy. laughs. i'm feeling very competitive. i'mjust like, yeah! no, i'm not. we're going to win. i'm a little bit like ahh! i was a working—class child from dundee. dundee accent: i didn't know how to speak english at all. that's how i spoke until i went to drama school. i came to lamda when i was 17 and i learned to speak what was regarded as the queen's english. i took to it like a duck to water. drama school was where

i learned to think. it was a time of tremendous social mobility. london was one of the greatest places in the world. i'm very, very excited to meet brian. i've grown up watching him. he'sjust so prolific and i think he's quite an artist. succession, of course. i'm a massive fan. i'm sure he has a lotl to share and he'sjust as much a force of nature as his characters are. - we've been waiting foryou, brian. shall we all how? yeah. i'm excited for an insight that you don't get normally. well, well, well. you son of a gun. hello. hello! hello. hi! hi, how are you? how's it going? good, thanks. great. good. you are?

i'm ryn. ryn? yeah. nice to meet you. lee. nice to meet you. how are you? hi, brian. i'm laura. laura. i'mjohn. hello, john. hello, brian. brandon. hello. how are you? you trained here? i trained here, 100 years ago. when did you kind of let go of the training? was there a point where...? no, i've never let go of the training. no? never. no, no — i still value the way i was trained. and the thing i learned — i learned to think. i mean, you're thinking, "is this guy talking "a load of crap?" laughter. but thinking means that you have choices. so many performances are unthought. there's some acting teachers who'd say, "you don't think. "it's all gut and all heart." no, it's not. no, it's about thought. always think first. what do you think is the best piece of advice that you've ever been given? when i was young, i was very ambitious —

i wanted to be a bit of a star. a wonderful scottish actor called fulton mackay, he said, "brian, don't worry about being a star. "just be a good actor — that's the priority." how do you keep this passionate about acting? i love it. i love it because i think it's the one true church. mmm. yeah. i'm sorry if i'm going to offend anybody here, but i don't believe in god, i do believe in the theatre, because it's about who we are as human beings. and it goes back to hamlet�*s speech to the players, holding the mirror up to nature. yeah. i think good actors should help younger actors and should be there for them. i do it because i love it, i love the job and they need it — they need validation. i'm here to empower you to go as far as you want to go. i am playing the character of othello in othello. and i'll be playing iago. i played iago at birmingham rep and he's an amazing character. he is bitter and he is really quite nasty. iago hates othello with all his guts, so he plants this seed that othello's partner, desdemona, has been unfaithful to othello. iago is twisting the knife in and adding more lies and poison to this storyline. othello is so in love with desdemona that the thought of her being unfaithful to him

drives him insane. quiet, please. and action! sojust stand here on your own for a minute and come and join her. what if i had said i had seen him do you wrong? or heard him say. when you come in... yeah. ..just give yourself a moment to see what is happening here. you're thinking, "how am i going to play this?" you could even pause... you could even pause... yeah. yeah. ..and don't anticipate. ..and don't anticipate. 0k. 0k. what if i had said i had what if i had said i had seen him do you wrong? seen him do you wrong? or heard him say. or heard him say. hath he said anything? hath he said anything? he hath, my lord. he hath, my lord. what hath he said? what hath he said? why, that he did... why, that he did...

i know not what he did. i know not what he did. what? what? lie. lie. lie with her? lie with her? with her, on her — with her, on her — what you will. what you will. good! good! that's great. that's great! that's great! so, take that further. so, take that further. i never said lie with her. i never said lie with her. yeah. i'm not making those conclusions, you are. whatever you feel, pal, that's it! you know? iago's whispering these crazy, gossipy things in othello's ear, and he'sjust seething. with her... ..on her — what you will. lie with her? be more disgusted by that. even more? with her... yeah.

with her! ..on her, what you will!

really feeling. i kind of loved that direction. "nature would not invest herself in such shadowing passion "without some instruction" — do you understand what that means? yeah. like, this anger wouldn't come from nowhere. absolutely. yeah. that's right. othello is so wrapped up in everything that he's created in his mind, he's seeing red. he can't be this angry and it not be true. nature would not invest herself in such shadowing passions without some instruction! it is not words that shakes me thus. pish! ears, eyes, nose, lips. it's possible? very, very good indeed. you've done a greatjob. thank you. i want you to go further. ok, yeah. i want you to really let it go. "pish! "noses, ears..." you know, argh! so, really get that going. it's not the words that shakes me thus. pish!

eyes, nose, lips! it's possible? confess! handkerchiefs! oh, devil! and then, you collapse. i do. you fall into a trance. i do. it's like a stroke that he has. yeah. you know, it's tough. yeah. 0k. it's a tough part. once again, and we'll leave it at that. cool but go for it this time. do it. do it, ok. go nuts and do it. fine, yeah. 0k? it's so fun. it's terrifying, but in the best way. lie with her? with her — on her, what you will. great! lie with her? lie on her? we say lie on her when we belie her. lie with her? that's fulsome!

handkerchiefs, confessions. handkerchiefs. 0h! devil! work on, my medicine. work! thus credulous fools are caught. and many worthy and chaste dames, even thus, all guiltless, meet reproach. great. well done. i mean, we'll go further. yeah. but we haven't got time. yeah. but you're doing a greatjob. but you see what you have to do? you see... yeah, yeah, yeah. yeah. ..what you have to commit to? the basis of that is really excellent. thanks, brian. well done. thank you. did you find it helpful? yeah. very. good. good, good. thanks so much. actors�* senses are always much more acute than you give them. they have a visceral understanding of material. and that was what was so clear. the biggest takeaway from the workshop was to trust myself as an actor that i can do shakespeare. if i can do that, then maybe i can do anything. i'm at lamda, which is where i started to work with a bunch of young actors on some of the top plays in the language.

hamlet is the great shakespearean play. it's the play that deals most with the human dilemma. hamlet is sadly one of the parts i regret not having played, but i'd love to have played hamlet when i was young. i'm doing hamlet�*s soliloquy from act one, scene two, which is his first sort of big speech. in your own time. 0k. lee sighs that this too, too solid flesh would melt... ..thaw and resolve itself into a dew. or that the everlasting had not fixed his canon �*gainst self—slaughter. oh, god.

god. how weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable seems to me all the uses of this world. good. you don't have to work it so much. mm—hm. the beat will carry you. mm—hm. the speech has a natural impetus which you should give freedom to. shakespeare does so much of the work for you. you don't have to do it. all you have to do is follow his pace, his rhythm, and his sense, and it'll work for you. just try it again. mm—hm. do you need the script? no, no, no, idon�*t. good. all right, i'll take this. yeah. i'm just going to sit with you. 0k.

0h. that this too, too solid flesh would melt, thaw and resolve itself into a dew. you wouldn't think that structure would give you freedom, but if you trust in the structure, it gives you the flow which allows you to be free, which i didn't think, i didn't realise, but yeah, no, he's a genius. or that the everlasting had not fixed his canon �*gainst self—slaughter. when you get to the thing about self—slaughter, that's, you know, suicide would be the preferable option. mm. but the canon of the everlasting is fixed against it. mm—hm. yeah. so you can't escape it. no. 0k. let's start again. oh, that this too, too solid flesh would melt, thaw and resolve itself into a dew. or that the everlasting had not fixed... enjoy the image of dew. yeah. enjoy the image of the fact it would melt to a dew.

ohhh. that this too, too solid flesh would melt, thaw, and resolve itself into a dew. he was really specific. he was like, "imagine that dew." i was like, "yeah, no, i can see it. i'm there. "there's dew. it's that dew on the grass. "it's that wet grass in the morning." i could feel the dew, like. it was great. it is not nor it cannot come to good. so that's darker. this is the very beginning of the play and you're saying, "this is going to end in a disaster." mm. it was giving that line the space that it deserves, giving it some gravitas because it's the ultimate foreshadowing of the ending of the play. it is not nor it cannot come to good. but break, my heart. for i must hold my tongue. good. he's really dropped some real pearls of wisdom.

the importance of the text, that is so key because as an actor, all the information you need is in the text. i can take that into screen, into modern plays, into everything. is that better? much better. yeah. good. yeah. well done. thank you. yeah. lee was really interesting because he brought a lot of very strong emotional commitment to it. there'll come a part that willjust be their absolutely right part. and we'll hear a lot about him, i think. i'm workshopping a scene from the seagull by anton chekhov. it's one of the great plays and it's tragic. chekhov was a great examiner of human foible. i'm playing treplev. and i'll be playing nina. it's just a scene about a guy who was in love with a girl and it destroyed him.

then breaking up, and he's thought about nothing else. at the beginning, she's young, hopeful, kind of dewy—eyed, and then by the end, she'sjust a bit broken. this is one of the most difficult scenes ever, because there's a lot going on. what do you feel? i wonder, did she come here to connect with old times that were simpler, and maybe see if she can still connect? i think that's very good what you've said. i think she comes back to get reminders of things past and what was lovely and what was great. ok, let's put you at your desk. i don't know if i'll ever get in a rehearsal space with brian cox again, so you kind ofjust have to go for it. ijust want to be open and learn, and let brian guide me. i've known every minute of my life that my heart and soul were yours forever.

and to cease from loving you is beyond my power. try to rise when he says, "is beyond my power." and you canjust make a quick move where you just, i've got to get away. yes. you know. 0k. nina hasn't seen konstantin in two years. and he says, "i've never stopped loving you." and that's not necessarily something she wants to hear. to cease from loving you is beyond my power. she sighs i've suffered continually from the time i lost you and began to write, and my life has been almost unendurable. 0k. so what you can do now, john, is you can take advantage of the fact that it is having an effect on her. yeah. because that's what that walking away is all about. and then you can just take it further, butjust do it in your own time. don't be rushed by it. aha. i have suffered continually from the day that i lost you and began to write. and my life...

you can delay. you can stop a bit. just take that in. and my life has been almost unendurable. now, what i'm discovering... yes. ..is there's a lot of power in what he's saying. it is giving her a big dilemma. brian, i'm a little bit insecure or something about being too indulgent with the line or with the pauses, and... we'll iron that out. but i want you to feel your power as opposed to your weakness. yeah. 0k. it's easy to play it weak. yeah. but actually, you have to play it, this is who i am, and i can't help who i am. there is an element of selfishness about him... ..of self—obsession that he has. and it's that, that i want to kind of up the ante on it a bit. everywhere i've looked, i've seen your face before my eyes and that smile.

that has illumined for me the best years of my life. why does he talk to me like that? you can make that bigger. yeah. just really explode on that. yeah, yeah. why? why does he talk to me like that? when brian gave me the instruction to go big with that, i was like, "ok." yes, sometimes it's cringey, but you kind ofjust have to own it, because what else are you doing? why do you do that? you could lose your temper a wee bit on that. why...? why do you do that? that's great. for god's sake! great. my carriage is at the gate. do not come follow me out. i will find my way alone. let me have some water. take that moment of the water, because that means that there's a real genuine need that you can satisfy. yes. it's the gift from him to me, because that gives me a lot to do. i was giving her the water and kind of dragged it closer to me, just...just to get those

extra couple of inches. do you know what i mean? why do you say that you have kissed the ground i walk on? hmm? you should kill me, rather. this is the clash. yeah. because you've come to go, "oh, it's... i'm in agony." and he's going, "well, really, i'm in agony. "i'll top my agony for your agony any day." yes. you know? i mean, that's the beautiful selfishness of human beings. mm! he's saying, "i am miserable without you." and i kind ofjust feel like saying, "my god, "like, i'm miserable, too!" you know? i am so tired. if i could only rest. rest? i am a seagull. no.

no! i am an actress. good. there's a potential of a good scene here. thank you very much. thanks, brian. brian got so into it, and we could feel that myself, laura, and brian had a connection and we were creating presently. you know, i did that and laura did that, and that's special. that validates you, you know? there's a level of commitment thatjust happened because he was there. so i will really try and take that away from me. like, do every scene as if brian cox is standing there. what i loved about the whole afternoon was there was no resistance. they were prepared to go down the road and they felt in safe hands. and i think that's what a director has to do, is to look after his actors. because it's difficult stuff, acting. ifind it hard, and i've been doing it for 60 years.

i think i'll leave today with more of a fire in me, you know, inspired. i'm inspired. that's what it is. to be the best actor that i can possibly be. we underestimate our need to be in spaces where we celebrate life. and that's what we're doing. and it's so important that working class kids can get access to that. i think i learnt a lot. it was a proper exploration. he kept on interrogating you and it was it was really cool. | yeah. he was very present. and it excited him a bit. it's very tough for kids from working class background to get to something like this. that's why it was great to see these kids, because they all came from that kind of background and they have the talent. his passion is quite... yes. it's quite addictive. you see the vision with him and you're like, "oh!" you go with him. yeah, you go with him. yeah. imagine being in a room for, like, six weeks, - rehearsal period. i know.

i'd be exhausted. that'd be great, though. yeah! that'd be great, though! you'd come out, you'd be class! yeah, i can't lie. hello there. it had been a very mild november up to now because the weather is changing significantly over the week ahead. it's going to be turning colderfor all of us, and that means frosts are going to be developing more widely. but it's mainly across the northern half of the uk that we have the greater risk

of snow and ice, and all because this area of low pressure is heading into scandinavia. and following on from that, the winds are coming in from the arctic, bringing in that colder air. frosty start for eastern scotland and north east england on sunday morning. showers will develop again in scotland and again there'll be wintry over the hills in the north, more cloud elsewhere in the uk, but most of the rain affecting northern ireland and then pushing into wales and the northwest of england. temperature wise, probably a little bit colder on sunday. across the board. won't be as windy in

scotland, mind you. we've still got double figures in the southwest of the uk, colder elsewhere and where those two air masses meet, you have a weather front. and not only that, but a deepening area of low pressure heading into the cold air, bringing the risk of some snow later on monday and into monday night. during the day, though, on monday still got some more snow piling up over the higher ground in northern scotland, elsewhere clouding over some patchy rain for wales and southern england. but it gets wetter in northern ireland as that area of low pressure approaches and begins to move into the colder air. so during monday evening and monday night, whilst we may well find some snow falling in northern ireland, the greater risk of disruption looks like being in southern

scotland and northern england, particularly over the hills here. mind you, we've still got that snow falling over the far north of scotland as well. the snow around this area of low pressure will continue overnight across northern england and southern scotland. as the low moves away. it could get very windy through the english channel, through the straits of dover. perhaps southern scotland. it does ease off through the day as the low pressure moves away, but it allows that northerly wind to return again and we've got more wintry showers coming in around coastal areas in the north as well. so a cold day, particularly where the snow of course, is lying, could still have double figures in the far south of england. but it's going to get colder even here by the middle part of the week, as that northerly wind returns and pushing a blast of colder air down across the whole of the country, and bringing with it more wintry showers snow mostly over the hills, particularly in scotland, but also northern ireland, and draped around some of these exposed coastal areas as well. many inland parts will be dry, but it'll be cold, it'll be frosty in the morning and those temperatures are even lower across southern parts of england and wales. it will feel cold,

particularly in the wind. now some computer models take this area of low pressure a bit further north, threatening some snow for southern parts of the uk. it looks more likely that will be heading its way into france, keeping us in that cold arctic maritime air mass. that means some sunshine and further wintry showers and those temperatures typically 4 or 5 degrees on thursday. now, as we head towards the end of the week, the winds may tend to ease. the showers may well become fewer. but over the weekend, if this comes to pass, this could be the next named storm, bringing some very wet and windy weather and perhaps some snow for a while before the winds change to more of a south or south westerly. things get milder across many parts of the country, but stay very unsettled indeed. but before that happens a lot going on snow, ice and some frost as well.

live from washington. this is bbc news. china's president xijinping says the country's desire to work with the us is unchanged following its election — as he meets presidentjoe biden for the last time. donald trump nominates fracking magnate chris wright as us energy secretary — as other nominees for his future government face heavy scrutiny. and ten palestinians are killed in an israeli airstrike on a school in gaza that was sheltering displaced families.

hello. welcome to the programme. us presidentjoe biden met chinese president xi jinping on saturday — the final meeting between the two leaders before mr biden leaves the white house. they met on the sidelines of the apec summit in lima, peru. mr xi described the relationship between china and the us as having �*ups and downs�*, but that it plays a key role in shaping global stability. he said that china is willing to support a smooth transition when us president—elect donald trump takes office in january. the comments follow mr trump's pledge to introduce significant tariff hikes on chinese goods as well as take a tougher diplomatic stance towards beijing. during the meeting, president biden reflected on his relationship with mr xi while in office. we haven't always agreed but our conversations have always been candid and always been frank. we have never kidded one another, we have been level with one another and i think

thatis with one another and i think that is vital. these conversations prevent miscalculations and ensure