Paul Nicholas heads into a retirement home for Quartet at the Theatre Royal Brighton

“I am afraid I have done what we all do: I have grown old – and there is not a lot we can do about it,” explains Paul who enters the home for ageing opera singers in Ronald Harwood’s Quartet, which tours to the Theatre Royal Brighton from March 26-31.

“But it is actually great when you can be playing someone more your own age rather than having to try to play someone who is 45! And this is such a great play – a play about getting older. I don’t think we change as a person as we get older. The body changes and all the physical things, but the person that we are inside doesn’t change. If you keep active and keep going mentally, then I think inside you stay the same. There is no reason why we can’t all have the same spirit as we get older.

“But as actors we all come along to rehearsals and act like children, and it is very powerful from that point of view! It’s certainly a fun profession, and they do say that actors never really grow up. All that changes for actors I think is that the parts become a little bit more difficult to find for older men.”