The Latest Breaking News from Falstaff

Why Herefordshire was the perfect stand-in for Shakespeare’s Stratford in the new film of Hamnet

Crooked buildings, welcoming inns, ancient woodlands … it’s easy to see why the location scouts chose this idyllic corner of England

The Guardian - UK · Nov 17, 2025

John Woodvine obituary

Actor who played senior police officers on TV and delighted critics with his Falstaff for the English Shakespeare Company

The Guardian - UK · Oct 13, 2025

The play that changed my life: ‘Michael Gambon’s offstage anarchy as Falstaff made the show better’

When Elliot Levey was cast in Henry IV, Parts One and Two, he didn’t expect water-bombing, corpsing and a character redefined by new teeth

The Guardian - UK · Jul 15, 2025

Timothy West: a modest maestro who embodied the best of British theatre

With a remarkable knack of bringing history to life on stage and screen, West honed his craft with devotion and delight

The Guardian - UK · Nov 13, 2024

See the real Trump in “The Apprentice”

There’s a reason Trump doesn’t want you to see this movie – which is why you should

Salon · Oct 2, 2024

Ian McKellen says fat suit saved him after ‘horrible’ stage fall

The 85-year-old actor, who fell from London stage in June, says he still has ‘agonising pains’ and avoids leaving the house

The Guardian - AU · Aug 21, 2024

I was Ian McKellen’s understudy – I know how he must feel after his accident

Sir Ian prides himself on never missing a performance. I too fell off stage in a version of Henry IV and was taken to hospital – I didn’t want to go in case my understudy was better than me

The Guardian - UK · Jun 18, 2024

The Merry Wives of Windsor offers strong evidence that Shakespeare was not its author

Letter: Derek Jacobi and Margo Anderson on how local lore and biographical specificity found in the comedy point to the 17th Earl of Oxford, Edward de Vere, as its writer

The Guardian - UK · Jun 13, 2024

The week in theatre: Player Kings; Red Pitch; Underdog: The Other Other Brontë – review

Ian McKellen reigns supreme in Robert Icke’s Henry IV mashup; Tyrell Williams’s coming-of-age football drama is bang on target; and the Brontë sisters are let loose – up to a point – at the National

The Guardian - UK · Apr 14, 2024

Player Kings at Noel Coward Theatre review: Ian McKellen's Falstaff is a remarkable feat of skill and swagger

This rheumy, phlegmy performance by Britain’s greatest living classical actor is played with relish and superb comic timing

Evening Standard · Apr 11, 2024