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The Best Actor and Actress: My Choice Revealed!So, who are they? Well, Judi Dench is great. She is very versatile and handles TV, film and stage equally well, but for some reason she falls, for me, just short of greatness. You watch her and are convinced, but that frisson that I have mentioned elsewhere isn't really there. Excellent? Superb? Great? Yes to all of these, but the greatest? not quite, but she comes close. And Helen Mirren? The same applies, but I do feel there tends to be a sameness about her performances, at least in modern plays/films/TV, so I would rate her a little below Judi Dench - but not too far! Another contender is Francesca Annis. I'll be honest: I liked her better when she was younger. Some of the parts she has played recently have been, to me, the acting equivalent of potboilers. Ten years ago I would have rated her higher than I do now, so obviously she isn't IT. And as for Paola Dionisotti, she, too, is superb. She is very versatile and I could watch her in anything - although I have to say that I have never seen her as good as she was in Further Than the Furthest Thing - but again that vital extra little something is missing, that frisson that greatness produces. So we are left with Maggie Smith. I can do no more than quote what a fellow audience member said at the interval of Lady in the Van, whilst we were partaking of the noxious weed outside the theatre: "She acts with every muscle of her body." For me, Maggie Smith is the British actress. And now to the men. To be honest, although Jacobi, Finney, Bates, Howard, and some others are in the race, ahead of the field are just two: Ian Holm and Ian McKellen. There is scarcely a hair's breadth between them and which I would choose is dependent to a large extent on the direction of the wind, or sunspot activity, or something totally extraneous like that! Both have superb technique but I think McKellen just gets ahead by a short nose, mainly because I think he has just that little bit more charisma. So there - my secrets revealed! Articles Indices:
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