INTERVIEW: Comedy icon, Exeter fan, grandad and currently a dazzling Scrooge at the RSC, Adrian Edmondson is in a thoughtful mood...

Interviewing a famous actor in the RSC’s bustling green room-cum-cafe while a World Cup footie match is in nail-biting action is among Herald Arts’ more challenging (and pleasurable) experiences.

I’ve been waiting for the star for a short while, nursing a cappuccino and staring at the big screen as Croatia and Brazil battle it out. It’s a cold night outside but inside it’s warm and steamy. There’s lots of chatter from the cast and crew dotted about as they holler and cheer as the game heads towards the dreaded penalty shoot-out and time ticks down for their own show’s curtain up.

Adrian is a football fan – an Exeter season ticket-holder no less – but he’s not a fan of the tea he’s just been served. He has a bah-humbug moment as he plops the teabag back in the hot water and fetches some more milk…

When Adrian was here playing Malvolio in Twelfth Night five Christmasses ago I talked to him then for the Herald too, and during lockdown he wrote a lovely piece for us about how he’d been spending his time.

He’s a thoughtful conversationalist, intelligent and serious but also wryly amused by much of life.