Briers 'reveals last stage role'

Briers' film roles include Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet and Peter's Friends

Richard Briers has announced "my last role on stage", playing one of the lead characters in Samuel Beckett's Endgame in London's West End.

The British actor, best known for 70s TV show The Good Life, will play Hamm at the Duchess Theatre from September.

The 75-year-old told The Stage he had wanted to play the role for many years.

"I now feel the time has come to have a crack at it, in what will be my last role on the stage, and I couldn't be in better company."

He added: "I saw Endgame 50 years ago with George Devine in the role of Hamm, and I said to my wife that this was a role I wanted to play.

"She pointed out I was perhaps a little young for it at the time!"

'Tempting prospect'

Simon McBurney, artistic director of London-based theatre company Complicite, will direct the new production.

"To travel into Beckett's language is a tempting prospect, for which you need the best travelling companions, " said McBurney. "I can think of no better than Briers."

The one-act play follows the blind Hamm and his servant Clov and their fractious, but mutually dependent relationship.

The production will also feature Cranford star Adrian Scarborough, as Clov, and Miriam Margoyles, as Hamm's mother.

Written by Beckett in 1957, Endgame was last brought to the London stage in 2004, featuring Michael Gambon in the role of Hamm.

Briers' extensive career encompasses stage and screen including roles in the popular TV series Ever Decreasing Circles and Monarch of the Glen.