years and yea rs i got to spend years and years and years back in the 60s and 70s with the royal shakespeare companyg him. over that the royal shakespeare company performing him. overthat time, and i think i've done 28 of the 37 plays, and some of them more than once, you get a feeling for the writer. i have an instinct about bits that i don't think are shakespeare. it's like a chemical reaction, this isn't him. it is like act one of titus andronicus, absolutely not shakespeare. the moment actually begins an error on comes on. . . the moment actually begins an error on comes on... here we are, i know who this is! so you said it's not a flattering portrait. but it's not unflattering either, because edward is asking the question, what must it have been like for the man who had had, eventually in his career, phenomenalsuccess, including considerable wealth coming his way, to have become in his lifetime a national figure, and who had written the sonnets and as you like it ad king lear and twelfth night and then turned away from it all. gone back to this market town in warwickshire, to live in the big ho

then the royal shakespeare company opened their doors.y and cleopatra. did you think you'd made a mistake? yes. press nights always start late, because we cannot get you people in quickly. i was the first person, i came on first. so i was standing in the wings for what seemed like 20 minutes, waiting for the show to begin. what i started to do is write the reviews in my head. basically the reviews were, who the hell does he think he is? coming back after 17 years and walking into a leading role? no, get some time in, patrick. those were the kind of reviews i was thinking about. so, when you saw the actual reviews, that must have been a moment? the great thrill was to be working on the stage of the swan theatre. then the reviews were a lovely icing on that cake. you have since been knighted for your services to acting. you are a knight of the british empire, and you are still a lifelong socialist, is there a contradiction in that? i do not see a contradiction. you do not think the ‘sir‘ sets you apart? i work hard to not let it. i look upo