ROBERT POWELL has been a star of stage and screen ever since his portrayal of Christ in Franco Zefferelli’s JESUS OF NAZARETH over forty years ago. He is currently appearing with Liza Goddard in the world premiere tour of SHERLOCK HOLMES: THE FINAL CURTAIN. In this interview he talks about his role as the great detective and of the pleasures and problems of touring . . .

Where do we find the great detective at the start of Sherlock Holmes: The Final Curtain?

He’s retired and paranoid that he’s losing whatever skills he had, then – without giving away the plot – he gets drawn into solving a new mystery by Mary Watson [played by Liza Goddard], the wife of his former partner.

What makes Simon Reade’s script unique amongst Sherlock stories?

Well, there was a recent film [Mr Holmes] starring Ian McKellen as an older Sherlock Holmes but he was quite a benign old man. In this story he’s a 70-year-old Sherlock who thinks the world is out to get him. In many ways he’s hiding deep down in the heart of Sussex in his little cottage keeping bees because he thinks he’s under threat.

Why do you think Holmes is such an enduring character?

Like any detective, he can just go on forever. Why is Poirot so enduring? Why is Miss Marple? Why are any of them? It’s because the audience loves detective stories and they like Sherlock in particular because they get tickled by the ridiculous, absurd analyses he can do in any situation – like where somebody’s been, where they’ve travelled to, where they’ve just come from. It’s a colossal conceit and utterly preposterous, but if you play it for real and don’t try and do a parody of it then it works. Well, Sherlock Holmes is a parody and you can’t parody a parody, you have to play it for real.

What challenges does the play present to you as an actor?

The challenge is that I never leave the stage or at least it feels like that. There are ten minutes where I’m not on stage but for the rest of the play Sherlock is in every scene. [Laughs] That’s challenging in itself.

Have you done any research to play this version of Holmes?

I’ve been around long enough to understand paranoia, loss of confidence and all those things, but it’s not been necessary to do any research as the character is all there in the script. And I’ve played Sherlock before but that was in Sherlock Holmes: The Musical which of course was very different. I’ve also played Hercule Poirot but they’re totally different characters. Poirot doesn’t have any personal problems or he does but he won’t acknowledge them. Holmes acknowledges all of his personal problems.

Would you be any good at sleuthing in real life?

It wouldn’t appeal to me, not in the Sherlock Holmes mode anyway with the detail and minutiae of his detective work. I wouldn’t have the patience.

How is it working again with Liza Goddard, with whom you starred in Single Spies and Relatively Speaking among other shows?

It’s lovely. [Laughs] Neither of us can remember how many times we’ve worked together but I think this is the fifth. We’ve known each for such a long time, we’re great friends and it makes life a lot easier when you’re touring if you have a friend with you in the same show. Touring can be hard, only being home on Sundays, but it’s also very rewarding because with provincial theatres we pack ’em out. The last few tours I’ve done – King Charles III, Relatively Speaking and the Poirot/Agatha Christie play Black Coffee – have been hugely successful and that’s good for ego, to be playing to up to 1,000 people a night.

You’ve also worked with director David Grindley before on the likes of Jeffrey Bernard Is Unwell and Single Spies. How is it collaborating with him again?

This is the third time I’ve worked with David now and he was my first choice to direct this, which the producer was more than happy to go along with because of how successful our previous collaborations were. It’s all about trust and that’s especially important when you’re doing a brand new play like this. I’ve worked out that this is the first time in 50 years that I have done a brand new play, rather than established shows or ones where somebody has cracked a role previously. The advantage of the latter is that you come into a show knowing that it works because somebody else has made it work and all you have to do is make it work in a different way. But when you’ve got a brand new play you have no idea until the first night whether it works or not – absolutely none – so it’s vital to have that trust with your director.

What’s the one thing you couldn’t be on tour without?

It’d have to be my laptop and my iPad so I can do some work in my hotel if the weather is bad, but with this tour we’re going into spring and summer and Liza and I are very good at going off to find castles and art galleries and that sort of stuff rather than sitting around all day.

Do you have any pre- or post-show rituals?

I have to have a beer after a show, that’s for sure. Before a show it’s just about making sure one has the energy so I tend to have a lot of fruit and Bounce bars to make sure I have protein inside me.

At the beginning of the play, Sherlock is happily retired. Could you ever envision retiring yourself?

No, I won’t ever retire as such. All that would happen is that I’d choose possibly to do less but I will never, ever close the door. There must come a point where you think ‘Maybe now is the time to smell the coffee’. Very few of my peers are still flogging away in the same way that I am. They’ve all sort of stopped or slowed down and maybe I’ll look to do that myself eventually. I have a new or new-ish grandson, who is two and a half, and I would like to be able to spend a fair amount of time with him.

SHERLOCK HOLMES: THE FINAL CURTAIN is at the Everyman Theatre in Cheltenham from 16th – 21st July