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TAKE A BOWTAKE A BOWLITTLEBRITTONRSC STAR JASPER BRITTON TALKS CATS, CROWNSAND BEING PART OF A THEATRICAL DYNASTY WITH DEAN BAILEYJasper Britton is Henry IV in theRSC’s Henry IV Parts I and II at theTheatre Royal. The son of actor TonyBritton and younger brother of tellypresenter Fern and scriptwriterCherry, he’s a prolific stage actor andhas served 20 years with the RoyalShakespeare Company. Here’s histake on the world…Were you always destined forthe stage? Definitely not! I didn’toriginally train as an actor so I found ithard to get into the profession, but twoyears after meeting my first agent whileworking in a Chinese takeaway, I wascast in a minor role. The rest is history.What did you do before acting? Ioriginally trained a newsreader for theBBC World Service. It was very serious,which was tough, as I tend to get thegiggles. I still wonder why I never movedup there!I’m meeting you for the first time. Howwill I recognise you? At the momentI’ve got very long hair with what I’d calla medieval hair cut and a white beard. Ilook like Father Christmas in leather (I’moften on a motorcycle).Did you never fancy doing daytimetelly like your sister? I don’t think I’mon their radar, but if anyone from LooseWomen is reading this I wouldn’t mindcoming on, actually.Do you and your old man qualifythe Brittons as an ‘acting dynasty’?I suppose in our little way it does.I’m proud to say the Brittons are stillchurning out Shakespeare 60 years on.What else do you do, apartfrom acting? I have a huge garden,which seems to keep growing! And I tryto rescue harvest mice from the jaws ofmy cats whenever possible. I have threemotorbikes in varying degrees of healthand a collection of yachts. My favouritehas a leaky radiator, but I’m about to wina bid on eBay which will remedy that. Ialso have a collection of yacths - modelones - although I may build a collectionof big ones in the future. All this acting isvery inconvenient!What’s the role you really wantto play? Henry Higgins in My Fair Ladyas I always remember seeing my daddo it it. And I never want to play Hamlet -what a windbag!The RSC is at the Theatre Royal, Sept 25-Oct 11, www.theatreroyal.co.uk20 WWW.GETINTONEWCASTLE.CO.UKWWW.GETINTONEWCASTLE.CO.UK21