Derek Jacobi

McKellen and Jacobi celebrate US gay marriage ruling

Ian McKellen and Derek Jacobi are two gay individuals among many who will be attending the Gay Pride March which is to take place on Sunday.

Stuart and Freddie's nuptials loom. By default, the best man duties fall to Ash (Iwan Rheon), their gormless neighbour who bears an uncanny resemblance to Game Of Thrones sadist-in-chief Ramsay Bolton. Can Ash pull off a decent stag? (Probably best not to let him arrange the wedding.) While the critical reaction to ITV's broad sitcom has been cattier than any of the sniping between acid queens Ian McKellen and Derek Jacobi, the second season has seen a subtle improvement in quality without abandoning the constant venom.

Sir Ian McKellen and Sir Derek Jacobi star as cohabiting actors Freddie and Stewart in this otherwise traditional comedy. Really, though, the thespian pair are straight men to Frances de la Tour, who owns the show as the endearing Vi, and gets most of the best lines. That's all particularly true in tonight's episode, as the pair participate in a ruse to help Vi deceive her sister Lillian, who believes Vi lives a glamorous life. With Stewart playing the role of Vi's husband and Freddie as the butler, what could conceivably go wrong?

Radio Times review

Loathe it or love it (and I'm in the latter camp), Vicious is back for a second run. It's been a long time coming - it isn't easy coordinating the diaries of this stellar cast. Derek Jacobi and Ian McKellen are back chewing the scenery as bickering couple Stuart and Freddie, with Game of Thrones' Iwan Rheon as their doe-eyed neighbour Ash and Marcia Warren upstaging all as the forgetful Penelope.

Tonight, their voracious best pal Violet (Frances de la Tour) panics when her long-absent sister Lillian pays a visit. Violet pleads with Stuart to butch up - it's a struggle - and pretend to be her husband. Mirth ensues, not least because Lillian is played by goddess of camp, Celia Imrie.

McKellen & Jacobi to be grand marshals of NYC Pride

Iconic actors Sir Ian McKellen and Sir Derek Jacobi have been revealed as the 'Vicious' grand marshals of this year's NYC Pride.

One return I am excited about is that of Last Tango in Halifax which was announced on Twitter just after this Sunday's magnificent series three finale. Sally Wainwright's brilliant ear for dialogue was on full display as Gillian (Nicola Walker) voiced her doubts about marrying boorish childhood sweetheart Robbie (Dean Andrews). The structure of the piece saw Wainwright apply a non-linear narrative as Gillian flashed back to tell Caroline (Sarah Lancashire) about her dalliances with a younger co-worker as well as Caroline's ex-husband John (Tony Gardner). The realistic sequences were punctuated with some high comedy as Caroline struggled to change a tyre whilst wearing her Sunday best whilst Robbie looked on the verge of vomiting after overdoing it on his stag night the prior evening. Wainwright kept the audience guessing whether Gillian would marry Robbie while she also focused on the frosty relationship between Alan (Derek Jacobi) and his love child Gary (Rupert Graves). As the camera swept round the multitude of happy couples at Robbie and Gillian's wedding it reminded me just how much Wainwright had made me care about her characters. I'd wept with Caroline after she'd lost her partner and felt for Gillian as she drudged up the abuse that her late husband inflicted on her. Wainwright has been lucky to find an excellent ensemble cast who deal with her well-paced dialogue beautifully. Special mention has to go to Walker who is utterly believable, playing the likeable Gillian who is prone to making some terrible mistakes. The only criticism I have is the continued presence of Gardner's John who at this point I feel is surplus to requirements and I hope he doesn't return for series four. Apart from that though I would say that this is Last Tango's best series to date and I'm already ridiculously excited about what series four will bring.

Last Tango in Halifax began it's third series late last year and reunited us with Alan (Derek Jacobi) and Celia (Anne Reid) as well as their respective broods. I've been a fan of Last Tango since it first began and particularly liked the darker second series which explored the past of Gillian (Nicola Walker) in a lot more detail. With Last Tango's writer Sally Wainwright busying herself with Happy Valley in 2014, I felt that she may not have enough time to wholly devote herself to a third series of this excellent family drama. These fears were compounded by the major story running throughout the first episode in which it was revealed that Alan had a secret son, Gary (Rupert Graves), who was the result of a brief affair Alan had conducted. The introduction of Gary to me felt like a way of just putting another obstacle in the way of the drama's central couple's happiness. However, after a lacklustre opener, Last Tango really kicked in in episode two as the emotional fallout from Gary's arrival started to take its toll on Celia. Celia's realisation that Alan wasn't completely perfect left her reeling and as a result she decided not to attend the wedding of her daughter Caroline (Sarah Lancashire) and her partner Kate (Nina Sosanya). This second episode completely restored my faith in Wainwright's storytelling abilities and it's clear that she knows her characters inside out, a fact witnessed by the icy way Caroline ejected Alan from her wedding.

Indeed, as somebody who has watched the series since it first started, I feel like I know these characters and therefore their reactions feel utterly genuine. That's possibly why I initially rejected the introduction of Gary into the series, however episode two gave Rupert Graves the opportunity to flesh out the character a little more. But Last Tango in Halifax wouldn't be nearly as good as it is if it were not for the drama's four central performers. Last series I found that both Derek Jacobi and Anne Reid had taken somewhat of a backseat to their younger counterparts, however the opening episodes of series three have really put them back in the spotlight. Reid has been particularly good in bringing out the pricklier aspects of Celia's character and in particular her truly feelings about Caroline's sexuality. One of Reid's strengths is her ability to convey her emotions through a couple of facial expressions that allow the audience to know exactly what she's thinking. Though she's not been as prominent a presence as she was in series two, Nicola Walker has still been magnificent and showed a skill for comic timing during a particularly memorable scene in episode two. But so far this series has belonged to the excellent Sarah Lancashire who, as Caroline, has presented her frustration with Celia in a believable manner. Lancashire portrays Caroline as a formidable yet vulnerable woman whose cool exterior has started to melt thanks to her relationship with Kate. Ultimately, after a shaky start, it's great to have our Yorkshire friends back with us for a third series of Last Tango. Whilst I hope that Wainwright finds a way to reunite the characters once again, I feel that the actors are doing a great job of telling the writer's brilliantly constructed story and I for one hope the series runs and runs.

Derek Jacobi on why sex is the secret to Last Tango

"It's two people in their 70s in a lovely and sexual relationship. It proved that old people can be as attractive and exciting and fun to be with as the kids."

Derek Jacobi on how an accident left him unable to walk

Sir Derek said that filming the latest TV series of Last Tango In Halifax was sometimes painful as he was still recovering.