Listen of the Day

For a good, chewy, thoughtful listen: Mark Lawson interviews Kenneth Branagh here.

Interesting on about four different levels. The interview covers age, ambition, Northern Ireland, Laurence Olivier, self-awareness, and fame. Many of my favourite subjects.

I had a massive hero-worship on Kenneth Branagh in the late eighties, when he set up the Renaissance Theatre company and was running three Shakespeare plays in rep. I went to see the production of Much Ado three times, I loved it so much. Halfway through As You Like It, the audience was breathless with laughter, which is not something you always see in Shakespeare. Then he married Emma Thompson and became tabloid fodder for a while, and all that rather got forgotten. But it is worth remembering what an extraordinary achievement that was. I still remember those plays, over twenty years later.

I also think his film of Hamlet was a very fine thing. It's worth finding on DVD if you have not seen it.

Apologies, as always, to those of you who cannot get the BBC iPlayer. It is such a miraculous thing that I wish it were available from Kansas City to Kathmandu. But sadly, it is not.