JUDE LAW "REIGNS SUPREME" IN THE WEST END

Closing out the sell-out 15-month Michael Grandage season in 2012/13, this Shakespearean tour de force proved to be as popular with the public as it was with the critics.

WHAT IS IT ABOUT?

Jude Law, formerly rom-com playboy, takes on the brutish tightly wound war-mongering King, who itches to start a fight with the sneering Dauphin of France. The resulting Battle of Agincourt sees Henry V victorious, but before victory is assured, we see him snoop around his battle camp in disguise, to guage his popularity with the troops. Flawed, trigger-happy and vulnerable, Henry must navigate a fine line between gaining France - but risk losing England in the process. Shakespeare's play is both at once a celebration of England's past military glories, whilst at the same time can be considered an anti-war play that takes a hard look at the bloody horror of conflict.

Henry V was the final play in the critically acclaimed Michael Grandage "Season of Five Plays" at the Noel Coward Theatre in 2013, which saw the likes of Dame Judi Dench, Ben Whishaw, David Walliams, Sheridan Smith and Daniel Radcliffe appear in various plays.

DID YOU KNOW?

Law's lead role in Henry V was his third collaboration with Grandage; in 2009 with Hamlet, and later in the Donmar's production of Anna Christie that marked the latter's final season as Artistic Director.