It was Sir Ralph Richardson who first anointed Michael Gambon — later a knight himself — with the moniker “the Great”. The two were appearing together when Sir Ralph summoned the young actor to his dressing room. Rifling through a drawer, he produced a strip of Indian paisley wrapped around a giant black pill. With ceremonial gravitas, he handed it to Gambon, poured him a whisky and ordered him to swallow it immediately, like something from Alice in Wonderland.
“Now you shall henceforth be known to the world as ‘the Great Gambon’,” he declared.
