According to the Daily Mail newspaper, Fiennes is in talks with director Adrian Noble for yet another production of the Shakespeare play. Both have done it before. Fiennes played Hamlet for the Almeida Theatre at the Hackney Empire in 1995, directed by Jonathan Kent. That show went to Broadway, where Fiennes won the Tony Award for Best Actor — the first person to win the award for Hamlet. Noble’s last bash at the Dane was with the RSC in 1992. On that occasion, Kenneth Branagh took the lead in a four-and-a-half-hour uncut version. John Shrapnel co-starred as Claudius, with Jane Lapotaire as Gertrude.

Though nothing is yet certain, negotiations are ongoing. If it happens, that will mean that all three London Hamlets will be directed by RSC artistic directors (Boyd is the current director, with Noble and Nunn among his predecessors). The Nunn version, playing from April 17, will feature the young actor Ben Whishaw as Hamlet, while Boyd directs Toby Stephens. That production begins previews at the RSC’s Stratford-Upon-Avon base on July 8.