An actor for all seasons

Please note 'The Andrew Marr Show' must be credited if any part of this transcript is used.

Kenneth Branagh talks about his remarkable career - from Hamlet, to Harry Potter.

ANDREW MARR: And so to a man for all seasons.

Kenneth Branagh, Actor

Hailed as the new Olivier when he made his debut for the Royal Shakespeare Company, Kenneth Branagh has had a glittering career on stage and screen, starring in everything from Hamlet to the Harry Potter films.

From the very beginning, he was determined to make his own destiny - writing, producing and directing for the theatre and cinema as well as acting.

He hasn't always had it easy from the critics, but now he's back for a rare season on the London stage winning rave reviews in the title role of Ivanov by the Russian dramatist Anton Chekhov.

The character's been described as "Hamlet with a mid-life crisis." So when I caught up with Kenneth Branagh in the bar, just after he'd come off stage, I asked him what had attracted him to the part.

KENNETH BRANAGH: He is trying to find a way through very recognisable problems. He is, he is in debt, heavily in debt; he's having difficulties in his marriage; and difficulties about his sense of self-worth.

And what I've always loved about this play and the character is a sort of at one and the same time heroic and un-heroic struggle to do something about that.

And they're very recognisable issues and people sort of dance around you know whatever relationship problems, financial problems in their lives, and I think they recognise something very Everyman-ish about Ivanov.

ANDREW MARR: It goes from hilarious to hellish almost instantly. A lot of nervous laughter in the auditorium.

KENNETH BRANAGH: Very much. Isn't it true? And he said when he wrote about the play that there were no angels or demons in the play. Everybody is as complicated and murky and capable of goodness and capable perhaps of things that are less good.

And that sort of, that sort of lack of black and white in a way, there's a lovely, lovely dramatic grey area of interplay between people and characters that we recognise around subjects that we have to deal with.

ANDREW MARR: Lots of references of course to Hamlet. And you are doing at the end of this season Hamlet. You're directing it -

KENNETH BRANAGH: Yes, indeed yeah.

ANDREW MARR: - your great role when you were a little bit younger - directing Jude Law.

KENNETH BRANAGH: Yeah.

ANDREW MARR: I'm just wondering what that's going to feel like. Are you able, do you hope to be able to transmit some of the things that you learned maybe twenty years ago to another generation of actors?

KENNETH BRANAGH: Well, I hope so. We've already actually... It sounds a bit odd, but we've been working on it - he and I together - for about a year. Actually partly here in the theatre...

ANDREW MARR: In the bar.

KENNETH BRANAGH: And in the bar in fact. (laughter) We have in fact used this bar to rehearse in. For about a year now, once every three weeks, he and I meet and we've been just getting on with it and starting the process of becoming very familiar with the play.

In the past, you know people like Richard Burton were directed by John Gielgud and so the chance to - whilst not putting myself in that kind of company - the chance to work with a) another actor like this who is so keen and passionate about doing it - we worked together on a film of Sleuth - has been great.

ANDREW MARR: Donmar Warehouse, known as a kind of very, very respected theatre outside the West End...

KENNETH BRANAGH: Sure.

ANDREW MARR: Come into the West End and one of the things I think people would notice is a much younger audience than you would expect.

KENNETH BRANAGH: There are 130 seats for every show at �10.

ANDREW MARR: And cheap tickets! How does that work?

KENNETH BRANAGH: Well, in a sense a collaborative decision amongst actors. There's a company wide wage, which is probably much...

ANDREW MARR: 750 quid a week.

KENNETH BRANAGH: 750 quid a week.

ANDREW MARR: Not a lot for...

KENNETH BRANAGH: Not a lot, but thank you very much. Nevertheless, it's you know... And we all... We're all on that money and that's tickety-boo, as far as I'm concerned.

ANDREW MARR: And is it important to you that it's bringing classic, proper theatre, as it were, back into the West End at a time when there are so many musicals?

KENNETH BRANAGH: An evening of ideas. Yes, an evening you know where classics can be spoken about and discussed and valued in the way that we, I think, miss in various other parts of the culture. Anything, I think, that gets people to go and see and experience what the live event is of the theatre I think with this Donmar season is good for the rest of the theatre in the West End - musicals or not.

ANDREW MARR: You do an extraordinary number of different things, it appears, to the outside viewer almost at the same time - a slew of films, your own Shakespeare films, Harry Potter and so on, television, live theatre. How do you possibly sort of discriminate? Is there any kind of pattern to what you're doing when? Do you have a plan?

KENNETH BRANAGH: Less of a plan than some people think. Although I'm talking to one of the great Renaissance men, so I think it takes one to know one. If you love what you do, then the opportunity to do it is something that is, it is a privilege.

And you know today in my dressing room I open a letter from a kid, you know 14 years old, who'd just seen our film of Much Ado About Nothing, which we made, I don't know, 15, 16 years ago; part of their coursework at school. Thrilled by it, saying thank god this made sense. Now the sense of reward is immense, immense!

ANDREW MARR: And Kenneth Branagh equals Shakespeare in many people's view in this country. But it also seems to be about subverting expectations. You're doing a sort of dark Scandinavian detective series for the BBC at the moment.

KENNETH BRANAGH: Indeed. In November we will see Wallander, three 90 minute films about a detective called Kurt Wallander, written by... The novel's written by a wonderful director called Henning Mankel.

ANDREW MARR: Who's big up there in the dark North.

KENNETH BRANAGH: Oh he's big in the dark North, but he's also... He's sold 21 million books worldwide, so he's big...

ANDREW MARR: That's a lot of books.

KENNETH BRANAGH: He's big amongst all of those who like mysteries, thrillers and sort of psychological dramas. In this case, much influenced by what you've just mentioned - the landscape and the atmosphere of the far North, whether it be the long, endless summer days or the very, very long and dark winter nights.

CLIP: KURT WALLENDER SERIES

ANDREW MARR: So you're playing Wallander. This then leads to 20 or 30 years of you know reliable, Sunday night spin-offs. (laughter)

KENNETH BRANAGH: Well, I think... There's something very strange, I think, at the heart of Wallender - the shows themselves and the character. And what I'm proud of is the effort and the work itself. I love the books.

CLIP: KURT WALLANDER SERIES

ANDREW MARR: With some people, you get the impression that they'll do the big Hollywood part as it were to fund the ability to do other things and yet some of the big blockbuster films you seem to have had so much fun in. I mean the Harry Potter part, above all probably. You were just having a ball.

KENNETH BRANAGH: An audience in various ways, even if it's a drama, sort of intuit the sense of relish that the performer has. They need to know and feel in some under the skin way that the performer wants to give this work - these words, this character - serve this story up for them. And I think you'd be daft, it would be ungrateful not to do that, so...

ANDREW MARR: Not to do it with everything in you.

KENNETH BRANAGH: Absolutely, with every relish - whether it's Harry Potter, which I was thrilled to be in, or Ivanov. I don't... You know, I do things that thank god I enjoy doing.

ANDREW MARR: You don't, you don't read the reviews until after it's all over, but I think - without revealing too much - they're extremely good for this one. And one of the critics said, "This is the moment when the establishment finally falls in love with Kenneth Branagh." (Branagh laughs) Was there a problem that earlier on you were so successful - I mean you were doing so many things, you were breaking through in different ways - that there was just... I mean we do have in this country the Tall Poppy Syndrome, the media just want to hack down people if they do too well; that you thought people were looking at you thinking that so-and-so, that sod, he's just got everything, he's doing so well, we're going to cut him off at the knees?

KENNETH BRANAGH: I'd be dishonest if I didn't say that occasionally a few bruises along the way you know were taken...

ANDREW MARR: Sure, everybody hurts.

KENNETH BRANAGH: � but, but that's also part of what we do and you simply can't do this if you don't understand that you know part of what you do is be up for... The work that you are privileged to do is there to be judged and occasionally you know you fall down and you get up, you fall down and you get up. And I think you have to mark your own scorecard, you know.

ANDREW MARR: Is it really cheeky? It is really cheeky - I'll ask it anyway - looking at that scorecard to look back and say these are the one or two things that I'm just still thrilled that I did?

KENNETH BRANAGH: I loved making our film of Hamlet. You know it was a wonderful opportunity.

ANDREW MARR: That was glorious.

KENNETH BRANAGH: � to do something on a massive scale and with remarkable people. The chance to make the Shakespeare films that we've made and to see their impact has been...

ANDREW MARR: Because those have brought Shakespeare to probably millions of people who would not have known Shakespeare otherwise.

KENNETH BRANAGH: They certainly... They're still on the shelves there and I just hear through the education establishments from around the world that they - amongst others, amongst many others of course it has to be said - have been... yeah they continue to make their mark.

And I do feel a profound sense of privilege and gratitude for being, for being able to do the work that I've done thus far and I hope one can earn the right to do some more of it.

ANDREW MARR: I'm sure you have. Kenneth Branagh, may you long continue to surprise and delight us. Thank you very much.

KENNETH BRANAGH: Thanks very much, Andrew. Appreciate it, thank you.

INTERVIEW ENDS

Please note "The Andrew Marr Show" must be credited if any part of this transcript is used.

NB: This transcript was typed from a recording and not copied from an original script.

Because of the possibility of mis-hearing and the difficulty, in some cases, of identifying individual speakers, the BBC cannot vouch for its accuracy

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