So I wanted to ask you, do you think now, can you remind us how far we've come?

Ooh.

Well, try and imagine a long time ago, just after the Second World War in the 1940s, when this part of the world was very depressed.

It didn't have any money.

The war was over.

Many people had lost fathers, lovers, husbands, grandfathers.

But the country had pulled together and felt that they belonged to each other, so that was positive.

Oh, that's a biggie.

Now, if you'd been walking down a quiet street in London's Pimlico on a sunny Wednesday afternoon not so long ago, you know, just minding your own business, you might suddenly have been treated to this.

And you, good yeoman, whose limbs were made in England, show us here the mettle of your pasture.

Let us swear that you're worth your breeding.

For there's none of you so mean and base that hath not noble lustre in your eyes.

I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips, straining up on the start.

The game's afoot.

Follow your spirit.

So what does Sir Ian McKellen think made Laurence Olivier so extraordinary?

Mm.

And you're inside Steven's head in a sense.

He's cast you.

He wants you to be in it.

He likes the way you look.

He likes the way you move.

He likes the way you sound.

[laughs]

Yes

... and, uh, turned into something that, uh, was less good than he had been, or could be.

And he sort of realizes that by the end.

Some, some sort of redemption.

But we mustn't make it sound like a psychological-

Yes

... because I don't think, uh, uh, it would need a, an exceptionally great artist to, to, to, to paint what she describes so, so brilliantly.

Yes.

I mean, most of the set is in a house, um, so it, it, it feels like a chamber piece really, like a two-hander.

Well, you feel like you're a guest in, in, in, in his house and in his film, even inside his head, uh, and you're at his service.

And I'm, that's a very happy position to be in as an actor, because he's, he's very confident at what he wants, and he lets you know, uh, i- if he's got it or if he hasn't.

Um, that said, uh, he's not eager to do much preparation with the actors in advance.

Uh, the script is there, and, uh, you're expected to have prepared it somehow on your own and just arrive and be ready to film.

That's not how I've worked in the past, and I said, "I do need a bit of preparation, a bit of rehearsal." So, uh, he lent me the, um...

Ed, Ed Solomon, the, [laughs] the screenplay writer, and Michaela, uh, and he came round to my house next door and me, um, sat round the table for a week talking about the script and reading it and amending it, uh, adding bits and removing bits.

And I wondered, is, d- do you have unfinished work that you would like to go back to? You know, that you started or you would think, "I would like to finish that."