I went to see Andy Serkis in Othello at the Manchester Royal Exchange Theatre a couple of weeks ago. He was absolutely brilliant as Iago and I was spellbound from start to finish.

I met him for a brief chat afterwards and he very kindly signed my DVD cover. I asked him if he enjoyed being in New Zealand and he said he loved it - he also said he was still having to travel out there to do extra work on the film. I said it must have been a very difficult role to do because of all the technical constraints and he said that the repetition was the hardest part of it, but I think he really enjoyed doing it. Andy Serkis was absolutely charming and friendly despite only having a short break between the matinee and evening performances of a three and a half hour play.