News about Geraldine James

Age-blind casting is becoming more and more common, particularly on the UK theatre circuit, with Ian McKellen (pictured left) playing Hamlet at 84, Siân Phillips and Michael Byrn as an 80-year-old Romeo and Juliet (top right) and Downton Abbey's Geraldine James taking on the role of twenty-something Rosalind. FEMAIL takes a closer look at the rise of age-blind casting and the actors that are pioneering the trend.

Did you see the French National Orchestra dripping wet in see-through plastic ponchos, and that grand piano filling up with water like a rain barrel? Yes, the Olympics opening ceremony was a wash-out. What fun! Every true Brit enjoys the spectacle when France tries to look très magnifique and ends up with oeuf on le visage. But it could have been so much worse. All that might have taken place in the shadow of a 1,000ft tall Wicked Willie.

MARMION PATRICK MARMION: As the 'new' lovers Rosalind and Orlando in Shakespeare's woodland romance, we have a good idea for RSC couple Geraldine James (72) and Malcolm Sinclair (73) as a 'new' lover. Even though tales about elderly people falling in love among adults can make it a little uncomfortable (not least to the oldsters themselves). However, romance doesn't have to be all Romeo and Juliet to function. Older people have as much to lose as younger lovers, and they definitely have more to lose.

All around the world's stage, and all the men and women are over 70, or so it should be said of a new Shakespeare performance. The Royal Shakespeare Company has welcomed a cast (pictured) nearly entirely aged over 70 to perform As You Like It from next month at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon. Michael Bertenshaw, 78, Malcolm Sinclair, 77, and Geraldine James, both 72, will play Phoebe, Oliver, Orlando, and Rosalind respectively.