Luvvies. Tyrannical directors. Useless agents. Less job security than an England football manager....

In 1971, Michael Blakemore joined the National Theatre as Associate Director under Laurence Olivier. The National, still based at the Old Vic, was at a moment of transition awaiting the move to its vast new home on the South Bank.

The National Theatre Story is filled with artistic, financial and political battles, onstage triumphs – and the occasional disaster.

In 1776 Foote’s was the most talked-of name in the English-speaking world. By 1777 it was almost...

The Bristol Hippodrome was, and still is, one of Britain’s major provincial theatres, high on the list of Number One tour venues. When Oswald Stoll asked theatre designer par excellence Frank Matcham to build him a new theatre in the city, he wanted it to rank along his company’s flag-ship and HQ, the London Coliseum. . . .