It would be fun to go for tequilas with Katherine Parkinson. It would also, at this time, be inappropriate. The star of the BBC One family sitcom Here We Go and Channel 4’s The IT Crowd is wry, ribald, and resolutely refuses to take herself too seriously, but it’s a Monday lunchtime and we’re here to talk about Shakespeare. She’s never done it before – “but can we say I have?” she suggests, “‘In the regions’?” – yet she is going straight into god-tier, playing the smart, strong-minded and, secretly, a bit sad Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing at the National Theatre.
It’s expert, air punch-worthy casting. Parkinson’s quick wit sometimes obscures the fact that she is a very good actress. In 2019, she nabbed an Olivier nomination for her performance in Laura Wade’s Home, I’m Darling, as a woman who rejects modern feminism and turns her life into a Cath Kidston fever dream. Just before the pandemic, she was giving a beguilingly off-kilter performance as a commuter whose life unravels when she loses her shoe in EV Crowe’s Shoe Lady. But she’s also, obviously, very funny – both as an actor, and appearing as herself on shows like Taskmaster. Beatrice brings all of this together: it’s a role that’s droll, dramatic and has plenty of big speeches. She’s one of Shakespeare’s very best heroines.
