It’s 11am(ish) on Easter Monday and I’ve already spent a good hour reading about the American Revolution for one of my modules at uni, so I figured it was time for a short break, and what better way to procrastinate than continue telling the story of how I got from Christmas to here?

So, in my last post I told you about how I met Sally. After we parted the final days of the Christmas ‘break’ (I use the term lightly) were drawing to a close. As I’m sure you’ve already gathered it was a race against time to get my essays wrapped up days before the deadline to give me time to prepare for my interview with Dudley Sutton. At least that was the plan. In reality I got them in exactly one day before the deadline, leaving me with an afternoon and an evening to prepare for the interview- a stark contrast to the weeks I’ve had to prepare for such interviews in the past. Luckily, I was already fairly familiar with Mr Sutton as his name had come up in my previous interviews. It really is a small world… Post-War British Theatre.

The evening before the interview I met up with Viki, one of the other two people doing my MA in C18th Studies. We had a cup of tea and a sandwich in Vittels in Broomhill, which was closer to her house than the Union or town. I’d only been to Vittels once before this for breakfast the morning after a night out, but on returning I remembered how much I’d liked it the first time, and since I’ve been a few more times. It was nice to see Viki, having not seen her since before the Christmas break. We compared essay woes and it gave me an opportunity to discuss my anxieties about my unpreparedness for the imminent interview I would be doing the following morning. After we were done I felt truly inspired and ready to take on anything! I headed home to go over my questions and plan how I was going to navigate around London the next day.

Mr Sutton had told us that the only time he was going to be available was at 10am. He lived in Chelsea. I live very far from London. So I had to catch a train from my nearest town that departed at 7.32am, due to arrive in London at 9.20am. I then had to catch a series of tube trains just to get to Chelsea, and then I was going to have to walk the streets looking for his address. Chelsea is a deceptively large place!

So, I arrived by tube in Sloane Square, Chelsea, at 9.45am. I had a map, suggesting that I just had to follow a straight road for an unidentifiable distance to get to his house. I originally hoped to catch a bus for this bit, but I now only had 15mins- Could I risk waiting for a Bus? Could I risk the confusion of not fully knowing where to get off? No. So I ran. I ran as hard and as fast as I could down  a crowded metropolitan street in the capital city, keeping an eagle eye out for one of the very well hidden street signs that might indicate how far I’d come.

Finally I saw the street, and his house. As I buzzed his door I checked my watch. It was exactly 10am. Bravo.

The door unlocked and the voice of a distinguished thespian told me to come up to the top floor. There he waited for me. A man that had acted around the world, that had persued a career treading the boards of some of the country’s most iconic theatres, before moving into television and the movies, now stood before me smiling and inviting me.

A nicer man I couldn’t have hoped to have interviewed. He ushered me into his kitchen and promptly began to make a cup of tea. As I set up the recorder conversation turned to his playing William Blake in a BBC drama, and on top of this we discovered a mutual love for the romantic poet. Whilst I was first drawn to the C18th by a love for Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience, Mr Sutton had long been his admirer and had even written his own poetry in Blake’s style. In a sudden flurry of exclamation Mr Sutton vanished from the kitchen, returning moments later with one such poem which he had mounted upon a cardboard imitation of one of Blake’s infamous plates. Enthusiastically Mr Sutton signed it for me, writing ‘To Adam Smith, With Respect to your love of William Blake, Dudley Sutton.’

Then began what I believe to be my finest and most enjoyable interview yet. Mr Sutton was funny and serious, he was informative but also anecdotal. It really is an entertaining 40minutes, and I look forward to its submission to the British Library archives.

As the interview drew to a close Mr Sutton bid me a kind farewell, and we promised to keep in touch.

Now I was in London, it was still only 11am, and my train back was at 4.30pm. Oh, the possibilities!

I’d arranged to meet one of my friends that I’d met at University, Josh, at Chancery Lane, but not until 2pm. So in the meantime I decided to do some ‘alternative’ site seeing. I jumped on the tube and headed for Whitehall to see the infamous streets once stalked by Jack the Ripper. I also hoped to visit Baker Street, but after a few delays on the tube I was short of time, so it was straight off to Chancery Lane to meet Josh.

It was great to see Josh, he seemed to have changed quite alot since arriving in the capital city to study for a law conversion. After a quick drink he kindly agreed to give me a personal tour of the Royal Courts of Justice where he now spends a lot of his time, and I’m very greatful because I don’t think I ever would have found some of the places we saw on my own. The tour came to an end on Fleet Street, another location I’ve long wished to visit (ever since Sweeney Todd), and we parted ways.

For my final hour I paid a long over due visit to the British Library. Finally I caught the train home, and a long and exciting day drew to a close. But there wasn’t much time to catch my breath, second semester was about to begin any day now…