400 years ago today.

 On this day 400 years ago, one of the most important things happen, the publication of what was Shakespeare's First Folio edition. We have been able over the years, the joy of his writing and plays. My first introduction was at Stratford in 1963 - to see Ian Holm, in an hypnotic performance of the crippled king Richard III. He had around one leg a ball and chain. What a start and since then I've seen many of his plays. I worked at the National Theatre, when it was at the Old Vic, and dressed Sir Lawrence Olivier, who played Othello, when his usual dresser was ill. I still have the programme, with his signature. Maggie Smith, was Desdemona. Other plays at the time - Much Ado about Nothing, again with Maggie Smith and the late great Robert Stephens as Benedict. President Mandela said one particular verse in Julius Caesar, kept him going and that was where - Caesar says in Act II 'cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once'. What more is there to say?