Robert Powell is already famous for playing Jesus so presumably he’s not scared of a little controversy, which is handy when you’re playing the next King of England.

The actor stars in King Charles III, writer Mike Bartlett’s daring royal adventure which mixes satire and Shakepearen verse. It was a hit in the West End and is now touring, including a stint at Richmond Theatre from September 22 to 26.

King Charles III posits the situation that after a lifetime of waiting Prince Charles ascends to the throne and is asked by his Prime Minister to assent a privacy bill restricting the freedom of the press.

Kate Bassett spoke to Robert Powell...

KATE BASSETT: This play has been a big hit. What, in particular, has drawn you to play King Charles III?

ROBERT POWELL: I think Mike has written a quite brilliant drama, brilliantly constructed and very funny as well.

It's totally of the moment, and is actually becoming more and more current with this whole issue of the freedom of the press.

KB: Yes, 2015 has seen the Guardian, after legal battles, publishing Prince Charles's 'black spider memos' to government ministers.

And of course the 800th anniversary has flagged up how the Magna Carta, in setting out to curb a king, ingrained the idea of civil liberties.

RP: And what I love is that Mike chooses a bill limiting press freedom as the bill that Charles won't sign – which is the opposite of what everyone might assume, thinking he'd be delighted if the press were shackled!

KB: This play includes occasional echoes of Hamlet as well as King Lear, and you’ve played Hamlet amongst other Shakespearean roles in your career, haven’t you?

RP: Yes, I played Hamlet at Leeds around 1971. And I played King Lear when I was still at school – at Manchester Grammar. 

KB: You weren’t from a theatrical family, were you, but did any contemporaries at school also go on to become actors?

RP: My father was a mechanical engineer, from Salford…

On my very first day at Manchester Grammar, the desks were in twos and I was paired up with Ben Kingsley (called Krishna Banji then). 

After school, I’d started to read Law but was doing a play with the Manchester University Stage Society when the Head of Drama, Hugh Hunt [a director of London's Old Vic Company in the 50s], came backstage and said, “What on earth are you doing reading Law?”

I jacked in studying Law but then had a year to kill (because, bizarrely, I had to take 'O' Level English Literature to qualify for the Drama course).

And during that year the director of Stoke's theatre-in-the-round, Peter Cheeseman, asked me to join his company.

About six months in, we were doing As You Like It, and into the first day of rehearsal walked Ben Kingsley!...In any case, I never took up that place at Manchester.

Wandsworth Times:

King Charles III was a hit in the West End. Picture by Johan Persson

KB: You’ve played many famous people including – amongst your leading screen roles – Christ in Franco Zefferelli’s Jesus of Nazareth and Gustav Mahler for Ken Russell.

More recently, returning to the stage, you played both Guy Burgess and Anthony Blunt – to Liza Goddard’s Coral Browne and Elizabeth II – in Alan Bennett’s Single Spies. As with the characters in Bennett’s double bill, would you say playing Bartlett’s Charles involves far more than a spot-on imitation?

RP [chuckling]: I can do rather a good imitation, and there may be certain little habits such as playing with the lobe of the ear­.

But, as Rupert [Goold] says, an impersonation would be completely distracting. Once you’ve established you’re not doing that, the audience can get fully involved in the character and your energy goes into bringing that to life.

KB: Have you ever met Prince Charles?

RP: Yes. He is utterly charming and Camilla is divinely funny.

King Charles III is at Richmond Theatre from September 22 to 26. Tickets cost from £20.40. Go to atgtickets.com/richmond