Tap-dancing Crown star makes sure show goes on
Even by West end standards it is an astonishing feat. Old etonian actor Sir John Standing has recited from memory a Shakespeare monologue which he first learned 60 years ago, and he has posted the result on Facebook to great acclaim.
Prince Andrew’s thespian friend, who played Mercutio in Romeo And Juliet alongside Leonard Rossiter at the Bristol Old vic in 1960, granted me a special audience and delivered a word-perfect, two-minute rendition all over again.
‘I’m older than God,’ he jokes. ‘God knows how I remembered the Queen Mab speech.’
Sir John, 85, has appeared on stage with Sir Laurence Olivier and in the Tv series The Crown as Captain Imbert-Terry, the owner of Castle of Mey. But the actor is growing impatient with the current lockdown, which he is enduring in London with his second wife, Sarah, 60, elder daughter of the late film director Bryan Forbes and nanette newman.
‘I’m champing at the bit,’ he tells me. ‘I was told to separate from my wife, and there was a time when were in different rooms.
‘We were tested for Covid-19, but we didn’t have it. now we are on different floors but we meet in the middle.’
So how does he pass the time? tap dance to exercise,’ he tells me. Other diversions include watching narcos, the American Tv drama about the cocaine trade in Colombia, and painting.
‘I went to art school before acting, but then I had to go into the family business [ of acting] to earn money. I’m the fourth generation who’s been stupid enough to have been an actor.’
he has also turned to his old friend and fellow octogenarian Dame Joan Collins for solidarity.
‘On our way to buy food last night, we drove past Joan. She came out and waved at us from the balcony.’