Mark Gatiss on summoning the ghost of John Gielgud in The Motive and the Cue: ‘It’s the best part I’ll ever get’

Mark Gatiss gave one of the performances of the year as John Gielgud in ‘The Motive and the Cue’, which took audiences back to his infamous 1964 Richard Burton ‘Hamlet’. He talks to Sarah Crompton about Gielgud and Olivier’s rivalry, great actors and alcoholism, why he no longer watches the news, and the possibility of a return to ‘Doctor Who’

Mark Gatiss on John Gielgud: ‘He was very funny, very mischievous and very kind’ (Getty)

Mark Gatiss sits in his dressing room at the Noel Coward Theatre and looks around. “He possibly sat here. It’s quite strange,” he says, with a look of wonder, as if he is feeling the presence of a ghost.

He is talking about John Gielgud, one of the great knights of 20th-century British acting, and who Gatiss is about to play for the second time. Many felt he truly summoned Gielgud’s ghost in his performance. Having opened to rave reviews at the National Theatre in the spring, Jack Thorne’s The Motive and the Cue now transfers to the West End – and to the playhouse originally known as the New Theatre where, from 1933, Gielgud was manager. In November 1934, he played Hamlet here, in his second go at the role. It ran for 155 performances.

In The Motive and the Cue, though, Gielgud is not playing Hamlet but directing it. Thorne takes audiences inside the 1964 rehearsal room for his infamous Broadway production starring Richard Burton, just after Burton had married Elizabeth Taylor (played here by Johnny Flynn and Tuppence Middleton). The show became the stuff of legend, generating a frenzy of excitement that led to a record-breaking run.