Hello, friends. Tonight's guest harkens from one of the earliest and finest episodes of the series,

The Naval Treaty. Mr. David Gwillam portrayed the much maligned Percy Phelps, whose fragile health

fails him upon the theft of that infamous government document.

Gwillam, who won a claim for many roles, including famously, that of Prince Hal in the

1979 BBC adaptations of Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1 and 2, and Henry V, shared many

stories with us about his time with Sherlock Holmes, his career as an actor,

and his collaborations with Jeremy Brett, both inside and outside the Granada series.

It was a real pleasure to connect with Mr. Gwillam, and once again, we'd like to extend a very

special thanks to our producer, David Ewell, for setting this one up.

And so, without further ado, we give you Mr. David Gwillam.

David, it's great to talk with you today. Thanks so much for doing this. Not at all.

We like to start at the very beginning. So I thought maybe you could tell us a little bit about

your very first performance experience. How did you come to be bitten by that acting bug?

I was born while my father was at the Central School of Speech and Drama.

Yeah. And most babies, the first thing they say is

mama. My first words were mummo, ma me, which was dad's voice exercises at Central. So it's been

ever present in my life. Sure. What was the first role you ever played on the stage? Well, I think I did something when I was nine or ten.

My only line was, shall we go to bed, your highness?

And it got a huge laugh, and I didn't know why.

The reason I became an actor was to get out of going to university and completing my A

levels properly and being able to persuade my father that I had an alternative to turn to. And I don't

know if you've heard of him, Eric Anderson. He was the teacher that is supposed to have inspired Tony Blair.

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