Your article (The rudest things they ever said about the Guardian, 11 May) refers to Steven Berkoff’s face-to-face threat to kill me. The incident was prompted by my Guardian review of Berkoff’s 1979 Hamlet performance, which I described as “fatally miscast”. The article says Berkoff’s threat – which I saw as mild-mannered though slightly spooky – was “reportedly considered so serious that police protection was felt necessary”. This much did happen: I was interviewed by a detective from Holborn police station, and the Daily Express’s gossip column wrote a sensational story with Berkoff’s Hamlet poised with a dagger. Recollecting the incident now with amusement, I feel I was hot-headed in my use of the word “fatally”.

Source: The Guardian May 13, 2021 17:37 UTC