I get sent a lot of scripts which feature him as a kind of all-purpose Victorian literary character and really understand little, if anything, about him, his life or his books.

Roles like this and his part in Four Weddings and a Funeral brought him a wider audience than his many critically acclaimed stage appearances. 4) composed by his friend Stephen Oliver. It was while watching actors rehearse that he realised he wanted to act.

Simon Phillip Hugh Callow CBE (born 15 June 1949) is an English actor musician writer and theatre director.