Richard Briers to Quit the Stage

Chiswick actor says Beckett's Endgame is his last role

Richard Briers has disclosed that he is to retire from theatre performances after achieving his life-time ambition of playing a part in a Samuel Beckett play.

In an interview with Stage magazine the 75 year old actor said that he had first seen the Irish playwright's Endgame 50 years ago with George Devine in the role of Hamm and told his wife that it was a part he wanted to play. In September he will be appearing in the play at the Duchess Theatre in the West End.

The one-act play explores the fraught relationship between the blind Hamm and his servant Clov. The production also features Cranford star Adrian Scarborough, as Clov, and Miriam Margoyles, as Hamm's mother. The role was last performed on the London stage in 2004 by Michael Gambon.

Richard Briers, is best known for his television work, particularly the Good Life and Monarch of the Glen but he has had a long career on the stage including collaborating with Kenneth Branagh's Renaissance Theatre Company.

He has given no indication that he intends to retire from TV or film work.

August 8, 2009