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Leslie Phillips - Sir Ludlow Swift

Ludlow Swift
  Tell us about playing Ludlow.

Yes, Ludlow, lovely name isn't it, Ludlow? I've been to the castle there and I can associate the castle with the character. He's the kind of beginning of the story really, and it [stems] from him.

It's a cameo role really, but a smashing part. He is on his deathbed and [it's about] his influence with the family and with what is going to happen in the future. The whole point of the series is really dependent on him.

He doesn't die in the way that everybody thinks he's going to die, but he dies in a spectacular way. It really is terrifying but intriguing, because it influences the whole piece.

Cartoon capers
  How do you feel about playing a cartoon character, rather than being able to give a visual performance?

I have done quite a lot of voices in my time. I have a distinctive voice, and through the years of work that I've done, my voice is well known. I'm often asked purely on the level of my voice - it literally led to Harry Potter. I play the Sorting Hat and I've had a wonderful reaction to that.

I was also asked to voice a video game called Gex. It was absolutely wild American dialogue and I had to make it work for English, so we more or less did it as we went along. It was quite interesting. The voice is very important - it's the most important thing you've got as an actor, it's your best tool really.

I'm very interested in getting [things] over to the public through [the use of the] voice - through timing, selling the dialogue that you have to sell and the way that it has to be done. There are so many people who've been brought up through television, which I wasn't, that do tend to rely upon a microphone hanging above their head.

I was brought up in the theatre, so I was very seriously brought up to deliver right to the back of the theatre. My first job was at the Palladium and my second job at Covent Garden. I had an extraordinary experience of being told to, 'Give your voice, to reach the back', and diction becoming very important, so that's really my original start in the business. It's affected me right through the years, even now, of course, in Shakespeare, so I find the voice a very good, very important tool.

Past master
  If you found yourself transported back to the 19th century, what might you most enjoy about that time period?

Well, I like going backwards. The reason I like so many places in the world is because they're backwards, not going forwards. I enjoy everything that's old, everything that's in the past.

Magical powers
  Is there any particular magical power you would like to possess?

I feel attached to Ludlow automatically, because I have five children and 16 grandchildren and I like being in charge. I like being able to influence younger people.

I suppose that's the sort of power that I didn't realise I had, but as I've got older I find even in my job - and particularly in this company - that they've been very interested in the fact that I've been in the business a long time. That gives you a kind of lovely sense and feeling [that] they're going to go in different directions and they want to know what you have done, and some of your story.

So I think that sort of power - to influence and to help somebody - is rather lovely, and I've got, purely by - I think - the amount of experiences I've had, which are numerous.

Enchanting Amber
  What do you think of cult TV and cult films? Is it a genre that appeals to you?

I've played right across the board in my life, I've done everything really there is to do. All I long to do now is be in things that are good and with people that have enthusiasm.

This writer/director I find enchanting, both as a director and as a person, and the whole company feel like that. It's wonderful, isn't it, to be able to come to work and enjoy it and be so happy and do something worthwhile? The whole company feel like this, so it's been great.

Being that the script has been written by an American team, how well have they captured the 'Englishness' of it?

Amazingly. There's no sign of any kind of Americanisms really. Hardly any at all. I think there were a couple and they've corrected those themselves. So it's not worried me at all. It's English.

Future spooks
  Which ghosts might you like to see in future instalments of Ghosts of Albion?

You can go where you like with this, can't you? Tennessee Williams found that out. He used Byron in a play I did at the RSC called Camino Real. He used Byron very successfully. You can pick anybody out really can't you?

There are so many people. Why not bring Tennessee Williams back? I'm sure he's very interesting. His death was quite unproven, how he died, I mean. That was staggering. He must have been an extraordinary man, really.

Audience participation
  What do you consider your favourite aspect of acting?

My life has been fascinating, my love affair with the audience. And the audience really is part of it, it's the part that makes it live. Your performance, whatever it is, doesn't matter, what the medium is doesn't come to life until the audience join you. They are the missing part of the whole operation and then, when the listen, when they watch, it then it becomes apparent what it's all about.

I find that in each part of my life I've changed. If you go through decade after decade - and that isn't an exaggeration, because I've had six decades or more - it becomes more interesting. The parts you get change with you, the company you get changes with you and the audience reaction to you not only changes with you, but they also remember through television and film very much what you used to be and how one has influenced the other.

I have played theatre, television, film, radio, voice-overs - things like that, so I cover the whole gamut. I'm always jumping from one to the other, but the most important one of all is the theatre. The theatre is where you reach your audience, where you reach literally.

You're there with them and it's so helpful when you're doing something [where] you have no audience, because it teaches you the way to reach them. So, without realising it, the influence of your working in theatre becomes paramount when you're working on something like this because you know you're doing it for somebody to listen to. It's a lovely feeling if you know that - it helps the way you do it.