The year 1966 saw a new bright star light up the London stage. The play was Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead and the playwright was Tom Stoppard who, at 29, was the youngest person ever to have a

John Marlowe, a shoemaker from Canterbury, died in 1605. His son Christopher had failed to follow him into the trade, choosing the more unreliable life of playwright, poet and jobbing spy. It had been

Leigh Lawson has embraced acting and poetry with the same determination that sustained Marie Lloyd, the music-hall queen whose memorabilia he collects, as Carla Passino discovers

Puppets and disrupters abound in this season’s family shows

My only commandment is ‘Thou shalt not bore’

Inspector Lynley is back! But not as you know him, say the stars of the BBC remake, Leo Suter and Sofia Barclay