The great British actor Robert Powell explains how he goes about tackling the Prince of Wales.

It has been described as “Shakespearean”, but what are the most obvious parallels between Shakespeare’s History Cycle and Mike Bartlett’s play King Charles III?

I always get nervous about stressing that. I have a worry that people are put off the moment you say the word “Shakespeare” or mention blank verse, but audiences are a bit like Tigger in Winnie the Pooh – they don’t know what they like until they taste it. Having said that, there are elements of Hamlet at the beginning of the play, when you have a prince who is about to be king and who doesn’t really relish the idea. He’s quite nervous about it and a bit tentative, because he’s waited all his life. Then, throughout the play you have elements of Macbeth. I can’t say too much as I don’t want to give the plot away, but there is one quite famous Royal character who has a touch of the Lady Macbeth about her. And because it’s a play about fathers and sons and betrayal, when his children turn their backs on him at the end...