Ralph Fiennes

Rosebud with Gyles Brandreth

Gyles Brandreth / Plain Jaine Media

Society & Culture

4.6 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 15 May 2026

⏱️ 63 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

At Rosebud we know how lucky we are to meet and talk to so many talented and fascinating guests. And this week we are especially lucky, as our guest is one of our greatest living actors: Ralph Fiennes. In this conversation recorded at the Haymarket Theatre (where Ralph is currently appearing with Miranda Raison in the David Hare play Grace Pervades), Ralph talks to Gyles about his childhood. He talks about his parents - the writer and artist Jennifer Lash, and the farmer-turned-photographer Mark Fiennes - their strengths, their challenges, and their love. He talks about the unusual and artistic home they made for their six children, and the legacy of hard work and creativity that has given him and his siblings. He talks about his mother's illness and death. Ralph also talks about becoming an actor and about the great Victorian actor Henry Irving - who he's playing in Grace Pervades.

This episode was recorded on Shakespeare's birthday at the Haymarket Theatre. Our thanks to the team there.

Ralph Fiennes is appearing in Grace Pervades until 11th July. It tells the story of Sir Henry Irving and his relationship with the great actress Ellen Terry - and is highly recommended. Tickets are available here.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	It's a podcast. It's on YouTube. It's a way of life. It's called Rosebud. I'm Charles Brandreth with another episode of Rosebud. I'm excited today because today's episode is being recorded at one of my favourite theatres in London's West End.
0:42.2	It's the Theatre Royal Haymarket, a beautiful theatre, one of London's oldest theatres.
0:48.2	For me it's very special because it's there that I went to in the 1960s to see some of my heroes in the world of theatre, people like Sir John
0:56.7	Gilgud and Sir Ralph Richardson. Currently appearing at this theatre is the actor Ray Fines,
1:03.3	and he is appearing in a play about Sir Henry Irving. Sir Henry Irving was the first British actor to be given a knighthood. I think until the
1:14.0	advent of Henry Irving, well, actors were regarded as being rather disreputable. But when Queen Victoria
1:19.5	recognised Henry Irving as the, well, the leading actor of his day and bestowed a knighthood on
1:25.4	him, incidentally, the knighthood was announced on the very day that
1:28.5	Oscar Wilde was sent to prison for two years, but that's by the by. Anyway, this is a play by Sir David
1:35.8	Hare, who's also been a guest on Rosebud, and it's a fascinating play, and it's a beautiful
1:42.1	performance by Ray Fines. I really recommend the play. I think it's running until
1:47.0	July at this theatre. Anyway, I've come to see Ray Fines because I admire his work, both as an actor and as a director.
1:56.0	Recently had a season of plays at the Theatre Royal in Bath, where the one that he's
2:01.6	appearing in at the moment, Grace Pervades, it began its life. I've been watching him in the
2:06.0	movies since Schindler's List, the English patient back in the 1990s, conclave, of course, much
2:12.2	more recently, but I remember seeing him too in the Constant Gardner, the Grand Budapest Hotel.
2:18.4	I loved that.
2:20.7	So many films and so much on stage too.
2:25.9	So a very intriguing character who doesn't give many interviews,
2:29.9	and I don't think actually has ever before talked at such length and so personally as he does now on Rosebud.
2:34.0	So this is a privilege for me,
2:36.2	and I hope it will be a pleasure for you.
	...

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