Veteran actor Robert Hardy is withdrawing from the West End production of The Audience following a recent fall in which the 87-year-old actor suffered cracked ribs.
Edward Fox will take over Hardy's role of Winston Churchill. BAFTA-winning Fox has enjoyed a long career in film, television and on stage which roles have included another Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan in A Letter of Resignation. Edward Fox received an OBE 2003.
Director of The Audience Stephen Daldry said, “we are incredibly fortunate that at very short notice Edward Fox has kindly agreed to step in. We are particularly lucky to find an actor of such stature and great authority to play Winston Churchill and we are delighted to welcome Edward to the Company.”
Peter Morgan's play started previewing on 15 February; it opens next week and is booking to 15 June. It stars Helen Mirren as The Queen and imagines the weekly private audience given to the serving Prime Minister by the monarch over the decades of her reign.
Other PMs are played by Michael Elwyn as Anthony Eden, Haydn Gwynne as Margaret Thatcher, Richard McCabe as Harold Wilson, Nathaniel Parker as Gordon Brown, Paul Ritter as John Major and Rufus Wright as David Cameron. David Peart plays James Callaghan understudies the role of Winston Churchill.
For further information and booking visit www.theaudienceplay.com.