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Sir Alan Bates thought it "the height of lunacy" for Canada's Stratford Shakespeare Festival to open three plays at once when he appeared there as Richard III in 1967. But that's the way they've always done it. And last week a new Richard opened at Stratford with with an actress, Seana McKenna, playing the eponymous role on the thrust stage for the first time. Bates was 33-years-old when he played Richard and I talked to him extensively about the role. The interview is being heard for the first time ever on PAID TO DREAM. Bates also played Ford in Merry Wives of Windsor that summer and was at the height of his film career having starred in A Kind of Loving, Whistle Down the Wind, The Caretaker, Nothing But the Best, Zorba the Greek, Georgy Girl and Far From the Madding Crowd. Bates left the season early to film John Frankenheimer's The Fixer, which earned him his only Oscar nomination. He died in 2003.

Alan Bates as Richard and Barry MacGregor as Richmond in the climactic duel of Richard III at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in 1967.