Liberating Shakespeare

Towards the end of our chat, I bring Boyd back to my literary level, with a question about the modern-day parallels of characters in the history plays. ‘Oh, everyone’s in there, all sorts of contemporary characters,’ he says. ‘Gordon Brown? The positive image of Gordon is probably Humphrey of Gloucester, and the negative one the Duke of York vying for power, because, at the moment of grasping it, the power dissolves in his hands,’ he says. And David Cameron? I say. A look, it has to be said, of distaste passes over Boyd’s face. ‘What about the Earl of Suffolk?’ At which point, I try to join in. And there’s Prince Harry! I say. He’s just coming back from battle to great acclaim. Perhaps he could be like Prince Hal! Mistake. I should have remembered that Michael Boyd doesn’t pull his punches. ‘Hmm...No. Absolutely not,’ he says, looking amused but pitying: ‘That’s not a good analogy. Prince Harry’s nothing like Hal. That’s a red herring! A red-headed herring!’ he laughs. And when I think about it, he is, of course, right.

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