Kenneth Branagh has been voted one of Britain's top 10 best ever actors. Next Monday Channel Five viewers will be asked to vote whether Branagh or one of nine other candidates is the best ever thespian to grace the British stage or screen.

Belfast's Branagh, star of Hamlet and early in his career the Ulster-set Billy stories on television, will face stiff competition for viewers' votes from Sir John Gielgud, Sir Alex Guinness and Sir Laurence Olivier.

The list also includes Cary Grant, star of North By Northwest and other movies. The top ten was selected by a panel which included veteran film critic Barry Norman and Sir Richard Eyre, former National Theatre director.

The list came in for fierce criticism from some quarters yesterday for omitting highly acclaimed actors like Richard Burton, Sir John Mills, James Mason and Oliver Reed. Movie director Michael Winner said yesterday: "Those on the list are all great actors but they didn't tower over everybody else. "Oliver Reed is not there either. "He did some fantastic work." Richard Burton's biographer Paul Ferris said: "Without a doubt he would genuinely think he should be entitled to a place, though he'd probably make a joke about it." Others included on the list are Daniel-Day Lewis, Sir Alex Guinness, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Charles Laughton, Sir Ian McKellen and Peter Sellers.

Britain's Finest Actors will be broadcast on Channel Five on July 11 at 9pm.

Is Branagh Really Better Than Burton?
by James Tapper
Mail on Sunday, 3 July 2005

It was, admittedly, always going to be a tricky job - to choose the top ten British actors ever to grace stage or screen. But the panel of experts assembled for the task have raised more than a few eyebrows by leaving out Richard Burton, Sir John Mills and Trevor Howard - but selecting Cary Grant, Peter Sellers and Kenneth Branagh.

It is the inclusion of 'North By Northwest' star Grant that has particularly angered many leading figures in the industry. They argue that although Grant was a hugely popular star, he seldom played challenging roles.

The burden of picking the top ten fell to film critic Barry Norman, former National Theatre director Sir Richard Eyre, artistic director Michael Attenborough - son of Lord Attenborough - and three film critics and authors.

Their list features Sir Laurence Olivier, who won an Oscar for his 1949 portrayal of Hamlet and who headed the National Theatre Company between 1962 and 1973; Sir John Gielgud, arguably the greatest Shakespearean actor of the 20th Century; Charles Laughton, Britain's first movie star; and Sir Alec Guinness, whose diverse career led him from the West End to 'Star Wars'.

Critics slated the selection

Others in the top ten are Daniel Day-Lewis, highly regarded for his method acting; Sir Anthony Hopkins, famous for playing Hannibal Lecter but also a respected stage actor; and Sir Ian McKellen, another Shakespearean actor who also starred as Gandalf in 'The Lord Of The Rings'.

But critics have slated the selection. Director Michael Winner said: "I would certainly have picked Trevor Howard and Robert Newton.

"Those on the list are all great actors but they don't tower above everybody else. Oliver Reed is not there either. He did some fantastic work. Nobody can restrict a list of the greatest actors to ten."

Richard Burton's biographer Paul Ferris said of Grant and Sellers: "If those two jokers are included, then why not Burton?

"Nobody would notice if Cary Grant or Peter Sellers were not in the top ten. Who would look at this list and wonder why they were not on it? But one does think that about Burton.

"Without a doubt, he would genuinely think he should be entitled to a place, though he'd probably make a joke about it. "He was beautiful, daring, intense and he had a stage presence you could cut with a knife. He was imaginative, he could turn prose into poetry and, of course, he had that tremendous voice, brooding and dark, that charmed women out of their clothes."

Dirk Bogarde's biographer John Coldstream said: "I would question Cary Grant and Peter Sellers. I think Dirk would have a legitimate claim to a place over both of those." He added that the actor might have been left out because his stage career was short.

Mr Coldstream said: "If it was simply confined to the greatest screen actors, then it would be grotesque if Dirk was not included, perhaps along with Trevor Howard, James Mason, John Mills and indeed Richard Burton."

But Barry Norman defended the panel's selection, saying: "The quality all the top ten share, apart from talent, is staying power. Anyone can be brilliant once - very few people can be brilliant nearly all the time. All the nominations are versatile and gifted - not just personalities but real actors, capable of submerging themselves into any role."

The results of the judges' efforts have been put to a public vote to establish a one-to-ten ranking. Channel Five will broadcast the results in Britain's Finest Actors on July 11 at 9pm.

Selected transcript from "Britain's Finest Actors", presented by Fay Ripley, Channel Five, 11 July 2005
*Thanks Catherine

Fay Ripley: Who will make it to number 6? Hey, I worked with our next actor on his film Frankenstein, although, ah, my scene was cut, as a corpse. Never one to hold a grudge though, I can only admire the talet of our number six. The youngest on our list, he is a writer, producer, director and actor. Kenneth Branagh.

(Photo with title: Kenneth Branagh, born 1960)

FR: Kenneth Branagh is the epitome of the self-made man. Growing up in a Northern irish working-class family, Ken knew early on that the only way yo get ahead was to reach for the top. Aged 13, he wrote his own column for the local newspaper. At 28, he wrote his autobiography, and at 29, he won a BAFTA.

Mark Kermode (film critic): He was clearly fantastically talented and fantastically successful, fantastically early. I mean, he wrote his first autobiography at the age of, like, six.

Adrian Noble (theatre director): He stood out, head and shoulders, above his generation.

MK: He was too good, too lucky, too young, too successful, too early.

FR: There are few people who know Kenneth Branagh as well as fellow actor, Richard Briers, acting together in over ten productions.

RB: Ken, you see, is a one-off. He came from nowhere, like these people, from left field as they say, and with this extraordinary dedication to acting, and got into RADA.

FR: And Branagh didn't hang around. On leaving RADA, he said he'd only join the Royal Shakespeare Company if they gave him the part of Henry V. RSC director at the time, Adrian Noble, agreed to audition him.

AN: He cam in and did, for me, one of the 2 best auditions I've ever seen in my life. And I took a deep breath and offered him the part there and then. Henry V was the first big classical part he ever did in the professional theatre, and he was the youngest Henry V ever to perform on the Strtaford stage. That's the part that really set him up in the world of actors as being something rather special and rather different.

FR: Ken was determined that his Henry V would eclipse all others. He went back to the typewriter to request advice from some very high places.

RB: He was extremely cheeky but, when I say cheeky, he got hold of Prince Charles, made contact with him when he was playing Henry V to get, sort of, to meet him, and Charles adored him of course.

AN: I thought that was a rather interesting piece of research actually, and I think the Prince of Wales was actually rather revealing I think about some of those issues of the private-public, the private-public man that are at the very heart of Henry V.

FR: Having achieved success as Henry V on stage, Branagh went one step further. Like Olivier had done before him, Branagh decided to star and direct in a screen adaptation of the play - his very first feature film.

AN: You got a real sense of a young man at war and the ambivalence of that.

(Clip from KB's HV - Once more unto the breach)

AN: On the one hand, it's very attractive, but on the other hand, it's quite horrific, and he managed to communicate both those things.

(Clip from KB's HV - the battle at Agincourt)

RB: And there he was, directing, producing, starring, playing HV, receiving an awful lot of flak from the press because of course Henry V was Laurence Olivier's part and Lord Olivier - you don't touch that. Rather stupid because of course Olivier's film was made half a century before Ken did his.

Barry Norman (film critic): Olivier's Henry V was made as the war was coming to an end, there was a feeling of triumph and relief. (clip from Olivier's HV). That is all reflected in Olivier's films. You flash forward (clip of KB's HV) now into the 1990's and Branagh's Henry V - exactly the same text, entirely different. It's an anti-war film, and it's absolutely right for the time it was made.

(Clip of KB with a film editor).

FR: The early 90's saw a series of Branagh productions hit the screen, but this success only drew more comparisons with Olivier and Brnagah-bashing became the favourite sport of the press.

(Clip of Olivier with Vivien Leigh at a premiere, followed by a clip of JB and Emma Thompson at a premiere).

MK: The fact that it was him and Emma Thompson together, both being fantastically brilliant and talented, automatically set one's teeth on edge.

FR: Exhausted by the hounding of the press, Branagh went to ground.

RB: I could never have done it, never have done it, even at 30 I couldn't have done it, and I think he suffered for it. And I think he thought, wait a minute, what about that very strange four-letter foreign word, life.

(Clip of KB in a masterclass)

FR: After time out of the public eye, Kenneth Branagh is making a return to film, not as director or writer, but as an actor.

RB: I think he thought, well, go back to acting for a bit, and he did with that amazing camp thing in Harry Potter.

(Clip of KB in HP - introducing himself to the class)

MK: He's very funny, and he's very aware of his own ridiculousness, and believe me, you know I take no pleasure in saying this, I completely misjudged him.

AN: He paved the way for all the Shakespeare films that happened in the 1990s. Ken did it, absolutley single-handedly - the Baz Luhrmanns, the Richard Eyres, all of those movies that were made, Ken did the groundwork for it.

From a segment on RADA as there were 4 RADA graduates on the list (KB, Charles Laughton, John Gielgud and Anthony Hopkins):

Nicholas Barter, Principal of RADA: Kenneth Branagh has this amazing quality of focus, that you're drawn into the mind of the character that he's playing.

And the Top ten List: