Rylance: I’m the Prince’s crop circle expert

MARK RYLANCE, the Oscar-winning actor, has claimed to be a “crop circle counsellor” to the Prince of Wales.

Rylance, who stars as the BFG in Steven Spielberg’s new adaptation of the classic Roald Dahl book, said that he and the Prince have exchanged letters regarding the crop circle phenomena.

He said: “He’s interested in crop circles, too, so I send him my crop circle calendars and magazines that I buy and keep him informed. I’m his crop circle counsellor.” In an interview with the

Sydney Morning Herald, Rylance said he first met the Prince before playing Henry V at the Globe Theatre.

“He is a great lover of Shakespeare, and I met him another time to talk about Shakespeare,” the actor said. “I still call him ‘sir’ in respect for his extraordinary fate. He’s just a human soul like you or I, but he’s been born into this incredible fate and so I respect him as I would respect anyone who has had an extraordinary fate given to them.”

The Prince reportedly showed an interest in crop circles in 1991, after a series of the symbols appeared in fields across southern England.

Two Southampton men, Doug Bow- er and David Chorley, later said they had been making them since the late 1970s, using rope and a piece of wood.

Colin Andrews, a self-styled crop circle expert, was said to have been asked to meet with the Prince, but the meeting was cancelled after a tabloid newspaper revealed the plan.

Mr Andrews later said the Prince had crop circles on one of his estates, as did other members of the Royal family, and he “wanted me to explain the features we were convinced at the time were of a genuine phenomenon”.

A spokesman for the Prince refused to comment.