John Wilson

the German theatre, the French theatre, the Italians a little bit.

I would come back to England and I'd go to the theatre and everything would be so beautiful and completely precise and for an audience.

And you go to France and as an audience member, you better keep up.

You're being asked for a lot more.

And you found that exciting?

I found that really thrilling.

And stimulating as an actor as well because it offers you a different kind of...

Yeah, I mean, I didn't work that much in the theatre in France before.

I mean, Prince basically put a stop to that.

But then when I really went back to the theatre, when I was 40, the first thing I did was Berenice, which is a Racine play in Alexandrin.

I absolutely loved it.

I probably murdered it.

It was probably disastrous, but it was an extraordinary thing to do.

And it opened, of course, it opened the door for the theatre here.

So I was able to come back to England.

And the first thing I did on stage in England was a Chekhov, which was The Three Sisters with Michael Blakemore.

The Racine that you did, which in effect is your introduction to the stage in French, how did that go down with the French critics?

Oh, I don't think it went down at all well.

I mean, the first night there were like seven people from one newspaper.

I think the person in Le Monde was very happy.