Daily Mail - Daily Mail Weekend Magazine
THE DAY I WENT TOPLESS WITH SIR IAN!
Parading in an open-topped car with his pal, his fears for Last Tango, his ‘bionic’ body – Sir Derek Jacobi’s on top form as he returns to TV in Romeo & Juliet
Sir Derek Jacobi has just ordered a Peloton bike, which is possibly a twist of lockdown that no one expected. Least of all Sir Derek himself. ‘I heard they are very good,’ he says of the hi-tech exercise bikes that allow you to do a spin class with an instructor in Los Angeles, or go mountain biking in the Pyrenees from the safety of your own home.
Since the legendary (and octogenarian) actor is not hugely into exercise, or technology, this might be an expensive mistake (‘it might just sit there while I look at it,’ he concedes), but needs must if you want to make the most of the miles you have left.
Look at the example of Captain Sir Tom Moore, he says. Sir Derek was his retina, but his vision is returning Captain Sir Tom’s ‘voice’ when he nicely. He can read a script. Phew. narrated the audio version of his autobiography. His latest role is a return to a classic, ‘I was at my house in with a Covid twist. He recorded France when I recorded it. We rigged his part – the narrator – of Romeo & up a studio with wardrobes and a Juliet from his London home. ‘They duvet. What a life he had, sent a green screen,’ he says, though. He was quite marvelling at how his marvellous, a true industry has adapted. hero, raising all that ‘We rigged it all up – money when he well, I didn’t, I’m was 100. He’s an hopeless with technology. example to us all.’ Lights,
At 82, Sir Derek mics, all from my is a mere youngster sitting room. No in comparison, stage involved.’ although he accepts Sacrilege, you might that he’s reached that act think, but for a theatrical (as he puts it) of life where Emily Redpath as colossus, he has always ‘things start falling apart Juliet in the play been nimble with his professional or dropping off’, and keeping all the choices, leaping from Othello parts serviced turns into a full-time to Last Tango In Halifax, via job. ‘I have no intention of going gentle some startling voiceovers (to my into that good night. I’ve been children he will forever be the narrator using January and February for from In The Night Garden). That maintenance. Feet, eyes, teeth, all he’s still in such demand must be testament that. I’ll be positively bionic soon.’ to talent, yes, but also tenacity.
He’s recovering from eye surgery, He puts it in more straightforward having had scar tissue removed from terms: people ask him to do things, and he says, “Ooh, yes please”. ‘In September I celebrated 60 years in this profession. I don’t want to retire, why would I? It’s exciting. It’s thrilling. It’s frightening. I’m just lucky people are still asking me. They say, “Why don’t we ask him? Perhaps he’ll say yes.” And I do! I’ll do anything.’
He seems disappointed there’s no new script of Last Tango for him to get his (exquisitely maintained) teeth into. ‘I don’t think they’ll make any more,’ he laments. ‘I hope they do, but Sally Wainwright is so busy…’
Why that use of the word ‘frightening’? You can see why being an actor would be frightening for a 23year-old starting out, but for Sir Derek Jacobi? ‘I suffered from stage fright once, very badly. I didn’t go on stage for two years. I put a worm of doubt in my head. When I did go back on, I’d stand in the wings and think, “This is a silly way to earn a living. Why do I do this to myself?”, but in time I realised you’ve got to be frightened. If you’re blasé and cool and calm, you will be rather boring.’
The rest of the Romeo & Juliet cast is shockingly young, and his heart both soars and bleeds for them. ‘Such talent,’ he says. ‘Technically it’s amazing – they don’t have to be on stage together. But my heart goes out to those starting in this pandemic, so many just can’t get their first jobs.’
There is a gentleness to him, as well as a gentlemanliness. He talks about how he is quick to tears these days, which irritates him. He’s particularly noticing it at funerals and memorial services. ‘I cry very easily. I’d be in tears the moment I entered the church, but it’s worse now. I’ve stopped saying yes when asked to read something – I know I’ll burst into tears and upset everyone.’ He chides himself for his constant need for a Kleenex. ‘In a way it’s quite selfish, but looks indulgent and it indulgent. I berate myself.’ Recently, he sobbed through Channel 4’s It’s A Sin, which followed the fortunes of a group of friends during the 1980s Aids crisis. As a gay man who was there – watching friends die – he found it profoundly upsetting. ‘It’s how it was. One of the things that got to me was the way the characters used the phrase “he’s gone home”, meaning they went home to their parents, to die. The phrase wasn’t used at the time, or I don’t recall it being, but it summed it up. Terrible.’
Sir Derek was referenced in the drama. In a chat about celebrities that everyone knew were gay, a couple of names were mentioned, including Phillip Schofield (who wouldn’t come out for decades) and Sir Derek. Yes, it shocked him too.
‘I sat upright in my chair. They might have warned me.’ You didn’t know? ‘No! Wouldn’t it have been polite to tell me? I didn’t mind, and I found the whole thing wonderful, but it was surprising. I got an email from Ian Mckellen saying, “I don’t know whether it’s more prodigious to be in something, or to be mentioned.”’
He’s always been gentle with his gayness, or the public expression of it. He always knew he was gay; his parents realised it too. He had samesex relationships as a struggling actor, but he was never ‘out’ because one wasn’t, in those days. He explains, ‘Everyone who knew me knew. It never impinged on my career at all. I know for other actors it did, or they thought it did, but it didn’t affect me, or change opinions of me.’ He didn’t join fellow actors taking
‘There are eight actors in our street, we chat over the fence’
to the streets. ‘I was never a marcher,’ he admits. ‘I avoided its politicisation. I did go to a Pride march in New York years ago. Ian asked me to. We were in an open-topped car rolling down Fifth Avenue, waving at the crowds.’ Some may say he should have been out waving placards. Didn’t he get angry? ‘I’m a Libran. I don’t do anger,’ he jokes.
He has opinions, though. We chat about It’s A Sin writer Russell T Davies saying that gay characters should be played by gay actors. Sir Derek disagrees. ‘He’s entitled to say that, but I don’t agree that a gay character has to be played by a gay actor, or that a disabled character has to be played by a disabled actor. If one is cast, then great, but I don’t think there should be a hard-and-fast rule. It’s the question of whether you have to the person you’re portraying. Well, I’ve played Hamlet 500 times. Hamlet was a mass-murderer. I’ve never murdered anyone.’
He shares his life with theatre director Richard Clifford, and has done for over half of it. They entered into a civil partnership in 2006, but married on his 80th birthday. There were two reasons – an excuse for a party, and ‘a propos of wills and legality. It’s about what happens at the end. If you have a certificate things are easier.’
It’s a compelling partnership. He laughs at how Richard is ‘everything I am not. He’s more talented, good with his hands, practical. A wonderful cook. I can’t boil water.’
Three years ago, they downsized to a house in West Hampstead. Friends in the biz told them it was coming up for sale. He’s tickled that they have so many famous friends around them. ‘There are eight actors in this street, we all chat over the garden fence.’ He won’t name them, but suffice to say the casting director would have kittens if they all agreed to be in a sitcom together.
He sees parallels with the community spirit he saw as a child in post-war east London. People assume his plummy voice comes from privilege, but it doesn’t. His father was a tobacconist, and he grew up in Leytonstone. He reckons the voice might have come from months spent in hospital as a child with rheumatic fever, listening to the radio.
Back to his Peloton. When it arrives, Richard will have to set it up. How long is he planning to pedal for, in the wider sense? He pauses to consider if he hopes to make it to 100, like Captain Sir Tom.
‘If everything is still working, physically and mentally, then yes, but if I’m incapacitated, hanging on, then no. I want to be living till I’m 100. If anything, he’s shown us that the best can be yet to come.’ n