Review: Sher triumphant accessory in real Game Of Thrones

Magnificent staging, magnficent Sher - although as you’ve never seen him before.

Henry Bolinbroke (Jasper Britton) may be the king but Antony Sher is the star in this medieval Game of Thrones.

Even writing 200 years later, Shakespeare himself had to tread softly around the delicate history of usurping a throne.

Which is perhaps why the play is as much about the dissolute Falstaff, played by Sher in a fat suit, as it is about the king and his heir, the young Prince Hal (Alex Hassell).

Lots of local connctions - even Coventry is mentioned twice - as Falstaff demands more wine and it’s the nearest town. Also, of course, the place from which Bolinbroke was originally banished by Richard II, before coming back to seize his crown.

The set takes us from church to bawdy house to battlefield seamlessly and with a full sky of drifting clouds.

As ever, the set is a triumph of artistic engineering. The braggart Falstaff is always in command whenever he’s on stage - apart from during the explosive fight scenes between the prince and firebrand Harry ‘Hotspur’ Percy making most of us in the audience collectively dive for cover.

Not, of course, that we are as fast as the old rogue in the blubber suit, always keen to show that discretion is the better part of valour. Before, of course, reaching for another bottle of grog and boasting about his enormous bravery.

Barbara Goulden.