in the book you talk about approaching adrian noble who ran the rsc in the 90s about playing the pat be this idea was ahead of its time —— about playing cleopatra. with the gender casting being something that is now up for discussion, yes, but unfortunately i'm a little too old for cleopatra now! i might stand a better chance of getting it now than i did at the time when adrian noble simply said, if i gave you cleopatra every leading actress in this country would lynch me. so things are a bit different now. exactly, how times have changed for top so if you are toying with giving up acting, would you ever give up writing? no, i mean, that's what... the writing and painting is what i would do if acting did come to an end. let's hope it doesn't. sir antony sher, it has been lovely to talk to you, many thanks. thank you. many places started easter sunday on a promising note. there was some sunshine around, which began to diminish throughout the afternoon. scotla nd diminish throughout the afternoon. scotland became rowdy in many places. —— cloudy. this wet weather system will bring us so

the production is directed by the artistic director of the rsc who is also your partner and the man youry in the course of the book. i was struck by how much input you had into things like the casting, the design, the cuts that were made to the text, and i wondered, is that normal or do you have special privileges because you are in a relationship with the director? i think any leading actor would be invited by the director to comment on some of the things which are going into making up the production. especially in the way the design... because, you know, if you were a director you wouldn't want your leading actor to discover on the first day of rehearsals that they are playing it in modern dress when they thought they might be in period costume. in terms of casting, i didn't have much to do with that at all, although he might say to me, what do you think of so and so for a certain part? i would probably say, great, let's try and get that person. you reflect on parallels with your life and the life of lear, the first issue was your faltering health, your bad shoulder. how useful were t