Michael Gambon was among the whooping audience who rose to their feet last night in a standing ovation at the first-night performance of Mike Bartlett’s King Charles III, in which Charles, stepping up to the throne, stands up for freedom of speech by refusing to sign Parliament’s press-regulation Bill.
“So what would you do if the real-life Charles defied the government over a matter of principle?” The Londoner asked Gambon when we found him having a fag outside the Wyndham’s theatre. “I’d be on his side — I’d be his pal,” he said.
“I like kings. I’ve played quite a lot of them.” Gambon wore the crown of King Lear in the 1982 RSC production and played George V in The King’s Speech. “And I’ve met quite a few as well,” he continued. “Playing kings is easy. You just get to be yourself.”
