Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some........

In the early eighties I had the great joy and honour of being cast in "Mother Courage" at the RSC opposite the person whom many of us feel is one of our greatest ever actresses, Dame Judi Dench. She's one of the people about whom you will never hear a derogatory word said. Her spirit shines out as a person, and when you are opposite her on stage, you are in no doubt that you are working with a true great.

Rehearsing opposite her, although nerve wracking at the time, was a joy. Her immense sense of fun is something that is undeniable, and at no time when you were working with her did you ever feel that she was acting. In fact, I began to wonder when she was going to "turn it on". When would the big performance that Mother Courage demanded start coming into play. Every time I stepped onto the stage opposite her, I was talking to the same Judi with whom I would share a cup of tea in the green room.

The Thursday afternoon of our first full run through arrived. I didn't enter for an hour and sixteen minutes, so I positioned myself at the side of the rehearsal room to watch the action. And suddenly there it was, this battered embattled woman fighting for her family like a tiger, aggressive, sardonic, and truly a force to be reckoned with. "Ah" I thought "she's switched it on." I stood ready at the side to enter. My scene was a full-blown altercation with her over a missing horse.  Arguments are great fun to play. We began. Suddenly looking into her eyes, things were no different from how they had been in rehearsal.  There was the genuine Judi stood there talking to me. No acting perceivable, just genuine heartfelt eye contact and emotional engagement.

Suddenly it dawned on me. From the outside this indeed was her performance as Mother Courage, but when you interacted with it you were interacting with a facet of the real live Judi Dench. Over the years that's become my definition of great acting, and the occasions on which I've seen it have been few and far between. I'm a good actor, but I wouldn't even begin to call myself a great one. That total boundary less immersion into the role is something I probably just don't have.

I have lots of other things I hope. A great sense of comedy, and a good sense of fun. Something Miss Dench also shares. She has an enormous twinkle, and as someone who is prone to twinkle himself when on stage, we had a great deal of difficulty making eye contact during that heated argument. In the second act I rolled up at her caravan each night to purchase a drink.

"Brandy" I shouted.

"Money" she retorted. 

Normally I would throw some coins on the counter, and she would fill my cup with water, and I would sing a song. (Remember it was Brecht so the ability to hold a tune wasn't really important). On the final matinee I decided to pay a little trick on her and instead of throwing coins on the table, I slid a credit card across to her. She found it immensely amusing, and slipped inside her caravan in a fit of the giggles. That evening was our final performance. No credit card, just coins. She topped up my cup and I began to sing. At the end of the first line I was to quaff from my cup. I did so, and two seconds later I realised the cup had been filled with cider vinegar. My reaction was so violent that I had no alternative but to spray out the cider vinegar onto the nearest thing. This happened to be the Dame's face. This caused a fit of the giggles much larger than that of the afternoon, and she once again took to her caravan leaving me to salvage the rest of the Brechtian anthem.

This week I had the chance to look into the eyes of a great actor once more. I started filming on the BBC's adaptation of "Wolf Hall" and my first scene was with Mark Rylance. An actor I have long admired,  but know very little of.  In the space of a 30 minute rehearsal before our first takes of the day,  I had that same feeling as I had had thirty years ago opposite Dame Judi. That of looking into the eyes of someone who was inseparable from the role they were playing. Whose own personality shone out and  invested the character totally. It was a joy and an honour to work with him. The icing on the cake was that as the day progressed, I discovered that the twinkle was also present. We shared a behind camera moment of the best way to judge whether one had done a good take. It involved biological details it would probably be unseemly to repeat here, but it made me laugh from the bottom of my soul.

 It did make me think that when we are looking for that greatness in our work, perhaps the first place we should look is in ourselves.

With the essential Tudor rain hood