Crowning Glory for Dance

There's a touch of bad-news-good-news about this Sunday's sell-out gala performance of The Hollow Crown at Frome's Merlin Theatre. The bad news is that health problems have forced Sir Nigel Hawthorne, star of Yes Minister and The Madness of King George, to withdraw from the star-studded lineup. But Frome Festival director Martin Bax was able to announce that Sir Nigel's old friend Charles Dance will take his place. "It is a great blow to all of us, but I am thrilled that Charles Dance has been able to step in", he said. "We are confident that The Hollow Crown will still be a great success and we wish Sir Nigel all the very best for a full and speedy recovery."

Martin said Sir Nigel was very committed to the festival, particularly as he is a close friend of the festival patron, Lady Pamela Harlech. He recently took part in a This is Your Life programme dedicated to Charles Dance, who meets up with another colleague, Tim Pigott-Smith - who starred opposite him in the award-winning television series of Paul Scott's The Jewel in The Crown. The Hollow Crown line-up is completed by television and stage star Frances de la Tour and Jamie Glover. The sell-out performance is a fund-raiser for the Merlin Theatre. The stars are giving their time free.

There is a famous Victoria Wood sketch in which Julie Walters, as the am.dram producer from hell in hideous black wig and OTT frock exhorts her cast to work, work, work because they only have six months to get the production right. The reality of professionals is of course very different.

Charles Dance had very short notice in which to prepare for his part in Frome Festival's gala performance of The Hollow Crown at the Merlin Theatre last Sunday. Dance came in at the last minute, replacing the indisposed Sir Nigel Hawthorne, to join a starry line-up of Tim Piggott-Smith, his wife Pam Miles and Jamie Glover and the magnificent Frances de la Tour. With no time for rehearsal, these seasoned professionals used their individual acting skills, without the support of plotted moves or props, to bring to life these stories of the kings and queens of England from the Norman Conquest to Queen Victoria.

Overall the production by Tim Piggott-Smith was thought provoking, witty and intelligent.

Charles Dance began in splendid style as the Scottish King James I inveighing against the evils of tobacco (striking a remarkably relevant contemporary note) and brought the performance to a profoundly moving conclusion with the death of King Arthur, from Mallory's Morte d'Arthur.

In between we had plenty of laughs - and enjoyed a quick grin of recognition between Dance and Piggott-Smith at the Marquis of Halifax's comment (as he "anatomises" Charles II) that "dissimulation is a jewel of the crown."

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