Edward Fox in The Audience

The Audience Director Stephen Daldry said: “We are incredibly fortunate that at very short notice Edward Fox has kindly agreed to step in. We are particularly lucky to find an actor of such stature and great authority to play Winston Churchill and we are delighted to welcome Edward to the Company.”

Edward Fox, famed for his consummate performance as Edward VIII in Thames Television’s Edward and Mrs Simpson, has had a long and distinguished career on screen and stage. He won a BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor in Joseph Losey’s The Go Between and was “The Jackal” in Day of the Jackal directed by Fred Zinnemann. His many other film credits include A Bridge Too Far (for which he was also awarded a BAFTA), The Duellists, The Shooting Party, Ghandi, The Dresser and The Importance of Being Ernest. His theatre credits include Knuckle (David Hare’s first play to appear in the West End), The Family Reunion at the Vaudeville, A Letter of Resignation in which his performance as Harold Macmillan drew widespread acclaim, Lloyd George Knew My Father, the idiosyncratic Earl in the 1999 revival of William Douglas Home’s The Chiltern Hundreds, The Old Masters (written by Simon Gray directed by Harold Pinter), Four Quartets, Legal Fictions at the Savoy and Trollope in Barsetshire at the Riverside Studios. His other television credits include Daniel Deronda, Oliver Twist and Hard Times. In 2003 Edward Fox was awarded an OBE.