Orson Welles and Peter OToole on Hamlet

This is en excerpt from the program Monitor (recorded in October 1963 at the BBC). Right around this time O Toole (19322013) was playing Hamlet at the National Theatre, under the direction of Laurence Olivier. Orson Welles (19151985) played in this year a film director in La Ricotta, Pier Paolo Pasolini s segment of the movie. He had finished his own film The Trial a year earlier. Other participants in the conversation are Huw Wheldon (the host) and veteran actor Ernest Milton (18901974). Milton was an Americanborn, naturalised British actor, who was prominent in the 1920s through the 1940s for his roles in London with the Old Vic Theatre and on the West End stage. In his day, he was considered an outstanding interpreter of Hamlet, playing the role several times in the 1920s. The atmosphere reflect this progamme s original latenight timeslot. Unfortunately this recording (from the BBC website) is incomplete and has some audio dropout. See also John Gielgud Hamlet: The Actor s View 16 May 1954 here: