Letter: Othello: educated gentleman of any colour

Sir: Film and television particularly have made us used to seeing the "real thing", but this insistent realism may incur its own losses. Some of the greatest and most memorable performances in the recent past have been big make-up jobs: for me Laurence Olivier's Othello, Charles Laughton's Quasimodo, Alec Guinness's Fagin, and (best of all, perhaps) John Hurt's Elephant Man.

Real equality may find it perfectly acceptable to portray physical characteristics not possessed by the performer. Political correctness may be a deadly brake on creativity.

IAN FLINTOFF

London SW6