BBC Radio 4 Extra raises the curtain on a season showcasing our honoured actors – those distinguished artists recognised as dames and knights.
Over three weeks, we’ll be celebrating a selection of these performers with a variety of programmes (many of them new to our network) including drama, documentary, interview and talk.
Our glittering cast list ranges from the first actor to be knighted (Henry Irving, played by Daniel Massey in Lord Of The Lyceum - Apr 12th, 11.15am) to the two stars acknowledged in the most recent Honours list: Patricia Routledge (Dolly’s Mexican Wave - Apr 13th, 11.15am) and Mark Rylance (Golden Lads And Girls – Apr 27th, 6.30am).
Our season begins in the weekend of the annual Olivier Awards and we’ll be marking the work of the first knighted actor to be ennobled: Lord Olivier is remembered in The Reunion: National Theatre (with Sir Michael Gambon, Sir Derek Jacobi, Dame Maggie Smith and Dame Joan Plowright - Apr 8th, 8am) and Philip Ziegler’s biography Olivier (read by Toby Jones - Apr 10th, 2.45pm). You’ll be able to hear the great actor himself in No End To Dreaming (Apr 9th, 4.20pm).
Other highlights in the first week include The Importance Of Being Earnest (Apr 8th, 6am) starring Dame Judi Dench and Sir Michael Hordern and It's Cold, Wanderer, It's Cold (Apr 9th, 4pm) with Sir Ian McKellen.
Beginning the same week, Sir John Gielgud shares an extraordinary range of reminiscence about his life in the theatre in An Actor In His Time (starts Apr 10th, 6.30am).
Sir Mark Rylance appears on Desert Island Discs(Apr 9th, 10.15am) and subsequent castaways include Dame Eileen Atkins (Apr 16th, 10.15am), Sir Ralph Richardson (Apr 23rd, 10.15am), Dame Harriet Walter (Apr 30th, 10.15am) and Dame Penelope Wilton (May 7th, 10.15am).
In our second week, Sir Anthony Hopkins stars in Howard Brenton and David Hare’s Pravda (Apr 16th, 8pm) and Dame Kristin Scott Thomas takes the lead role in Sophocles’ Electra (Apr 15th, 6am).
Sir Alec Guinness reads Lewis Carroll’s The Hunting Of The Snark (Apr 15th, 12pm) and is featured in the Archive On 4 documentary Dark Horse (Apr 15th, 8am), while legendary actor-manager Sir Donald Wolfit reads a selection from Jonathan Swift’s Satirical Verse (Apr 16th, 7.15am).
Sir Michael Gambon stars in The Annunciation (Apr 21st, 10am). Dames Peggy Ashcroft and Judi Dench read the paired monologues Chances (Apr 19th, 10am) and two knights combine as Nigel Hawthorne reads Charles Chaplin’s My Autobiography (Apr 17th, 2.45pm).
In our last week, we delve deep into the Home Service archive for two 1940s pieces featuring Dame Edith Evans: The Actress - Dame Edith Evans Talks About The Stage (Apr 25th, 6.30am) and Love At Arms (Apr 25th, 6.50am), an extract from As You Like It, co-starring Sir Michael Redgrave.
We’ve rummaged in the World Service archive as well, bringing you Marvellous Party (Apr 27th 10am) in which Dame Dorothy Tutin’s co-star is Stanley Baxter, playing the real-life role of Sir Noel Coward.
Sir Robert Stephens stars in All Free Now (Apr 22nd, 6am) and Sir Daniel Day-Lewis appears in Dead-Heading The Roses (Apr 24th, 11.15). The State Of The Art (Apr 26th, 11.15) features Sir Antony Sher, Sir Ben Kingsley heads the cast in A Sense Of Things Moving Forward (Apr 28th, 10am) and Dame Flora Robson is Frankly Speaking (Apr 22nd, 2.15pm).
You might even find yourself recognising some potential dames and knights among our casts – Frances Barber? Simon Russell Beale? Miriam Margolyes? Michael Sheen?
Settle back as the lights dim and the curtain rises on our season of honoured – and marvellous – actors.