If you want to be an actor, then you need to be tested and I can't think of a more testing part, apart from Hamlet, for this age. The peculiar life Dan's led has prepared him for things that most people will never have to deal with. To watch the ease with which he deals with things is extraordinary and immediately gave me great faith in the fact that he had as good a chance as anybody of pulling it off, if not better.

That's not what the nudity is about. There is unquestionably a very dark side to the play - that's what makes it so visceral and exciting - but it doesn't take away from the fact that it's an exceptional piece of playwriting and it's time to see it again. It's too good for yet another generation not to see it. At some point, you have to hold your hands up and say you can't please all of the people all of the time. But perhaps some of those people will come and see it and be bowled over by Daniel's performance - not Harry Potter, but Daniel Radcliffe - and forgive us for doing it. He's not a fictional boy who lives in a book.

With Dan, I do feel a huge sense of responsibility. It's a huge personal risk for him. One has an overwhelming sense of wanting to protect him, wanting to work him as hard as possible, so that when he goes out there he's going to do himself proud.