I love The History Boys – although explaining how and why I love it is probably another blog.  This weekend, any thoughts of that wonderful production are dominated by our loss of the colossal, inimitable Richard Griffiths.  Many who knew him have already written movingly of their admiration and affection:  Jamie Parker’s beautiful, insightful analysis is here:. www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1rjfuh4 and it is far better than anything I could hope to write.

For me (distant audience member), it all started, as it so often did, during my golden years visiting Stratford in the late 1970s and early 80s, when Richard Griffiths was part of the ensemble.  My probably faulty memory suggests Pompey in Measure for  Measure, title roles in Henry VIII (a rare and valued chance to see the play) and a little later Volpone – a part he seemed to relish.  His intelligence shone through, and, oh, his beautiful voice.  My family’s affection for him transferred to television and Pie in the Sky where I seem to remember ridiculous detective plots getting in the way of the real pleasure of the series, which was undoubtedly watching Richard and Maggie Steed’s beautifully nuanced characters just pottering around in their restaurant.

Can there be such a quality as steely generosity? And can I suggest that Griffiths conveyed joie de vivre and lachrimae rerum without sounding like a completely pretentious idiot? There are a few actors who dominate the stage to such an extent that the other actors’ performances may be missed.  Kevin Spacey is one;  I find Rory Kinnear another such magnetic presence.  This was not the case with Richard Griffiths:  perhaps uniquely, he was effortlessly dominant in a way which also enhanced every performance around him.  In The Habit of Art, a complex and multilayered play of Bennett’s, his character literally took centre stage without detracting in any way from the wonderful actors around him. In The History Boys, the dynamic between Richard Griffiths’ Hector and his unruly class of amazing young actors was truly exceptional, hysterically funny and moving (the film and audio versions are, I am afraid, very pale echoes of the stage performance). There are, for me, three key emotional moments in The History Boys and they all involve Richard Griffiths:  Hector’s outburst of despair, truly frightening and embarrassing to the boys; his quiet analysis of Hardy’s poem Drummer Hodge with Posner, both beautiful and bleak, and of course the sadness of the boys’ elegy at the end.  Yesterday, Sam Barnett tweeted a link to that song in tribute to Richard Griffiths and really, there is no better way of taking a moment and being grateful for a truly great actor:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGSkI33UIxQ

RIP.