THE DEMON BARBER!

She's one of our most versatile, beguiling and outspoken stars. Thank goodness for Frances Barber, writes RICHARD BARBER no relation), as they discuss her extraordinary career, famous friends... and playing Polonius as Dominic Cummings

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FRANCES BARBER is never happier, she says, than when she's working with her best mate, Ian McKellen. So, it was joy unconfined when they coincided in not one but two productions of Hamlet - one on film, the other on stage.

The actress originally cast as the Player Queen, the First Player and the Second Gravedigger had to pull out - she'd just landed a TV series so, with four days before the cameras rolled, Frances, 65, stepped into the breach.

The film was made in 2021 at the Theatre Royal Windsor, not on the stage but using the whole building from top to bottom.

Shortly after filming, the cast reconvened to produce the play on stage at the same theatre. The star-studded line-up included Jonathan Hyde as Claudius, with Jenny Seagrove as Gertrude and Steven Berkoff as Polonius.

On her way to the theatre one morning, Frances ("but everyone calls me Frankie") noticed that the flag on Windsor Castle was hanging at half-mast.

"So, I said to anyone who'd listen that I thought Prince Philip had died. I was told not to be so silly." But she was right.

"We were staying at the Castle Hotel but only on the understanding that, if any major royal story broke, the world's press had booked it out and we'd have to move to another hotel," she continues.

"Very quickly, the place was swarming with cameras and journalists and we did indeed have to decamp. I didn't mind because it was a part of history and, anyway, I'm big monarchist. So, I was terribly moved by it all." Sadly, after two weeks of the stage show, Steven Berkoff walked out.