When I sit down with Alistair Petrie, he has approximately two and half hours before he goes on stage to perform Shakespeare’s longest play at the National Theatre. He’s in the final few weeks of a relentless schedule that started in September and has seen him perform in Hamlet’s eight three-hour shows per week – but it’s clear the thrill of it all is yet to wane. “To stand on stage and tell an entire story is fantastic because the stage is an actor’s medium,” he says, smiling. “Theatre is incredibly visceral.” 

It’s certainly not his first rodeo; in fact, Shakespeare has dominated much of the seasoned British actor’s early career, including roles in Troilus and Cressida, Henry IV and, more recently, Shakespeare in Love in 2015. He quickly admits, though, that he didn’t find The Bard’s work easy to digest at first. “I was like every average young person of reasonable intelligence that looked at Shakespeare and thought this is impossibly hard and I don’t understand it,” explains Petrie. “Shakespeare’s work can be hugely intimidating; it frightened me – which was a good thing, you should generally run towards things that frighten you – but I loved that it’s about performing and making it understandable to an audience.”

How did he know, then, that 2025 – a decade on from his last spate of Shakespeare – was the right time to return to the subject? “I wasn’t ready to do another play. Shakespeare in Love was incredibly hard; six months in London, eight shows a week. I couldn’t be a proper parent and I underestimated how difficult it would be. There was a lot of pressure on the show so it put me off. I just thought I didn’t need to do theatre. 

“I had a deal with my agent that was right play, right part, right theatre and right director – and if that came across their desk then maybe. And this was probably the first time when all four boxes were ticked. I’m so glad I’ve done it; it’s proper honest graft.

“The other thing I have learned is that Shakespeare isn’t sacrosanct; like all plays, they’re written to be performed, not read. Hamlet is Shakespeare’s longest play but we’ve done a lot of judicious cutting. It’s there to be messed with, and that’s why it gets done again and again.”

Having opened in September 2025 for a limited, two-month run, Petrie plays King Claudius – “so I don’t have to do anything like open doors and I say words and people get out of my way, it’s great,” he quips – who is the primary villain in Hamlet, and he makes no secret about why he enjoys playing the “baddie”. “I’ve always played high-status parts which are always a lot of fun as you get to say things you never normally do, but there’s also this amazing challenge of finding the human being within the so-called bad person.

“We’re not all good, we’re not all bad, but there’s the grey stuff in between which is the most interesting place to land in. I’ve tried to find the moral conundrum of this murderous king.” 

Petrie is certainly no stranger to high-status projects. Alongside his plethora of on-stage roles, he’s renowned for his work in Cloud Atlas alongside Tom Hanks, Channel 4’s Utopia, The Night Manager opposite Hugh Laurie and Tom Hiddleston, and as Michael Groff in Netflix phenomenon Sex Education. Of all of the starry achievements on his CV thus far, it’s the latter he describes as “the most significant professional experiences of my life”. 

Having starred in all four series as the overbearing headmaster at the fictional Moordale Secondary School, Petrie knew as soon as he read the Sex Education script that he wanted to be involved. “Most actors can have a very visceral response to a piece of writing and within two pages of a script, you get an instinct. It came from a place of real warmth and had a boldness to it, and there was nothing like it out there. It was a bit of a no-brainer.

I’m mildly in love with Hugh Laurie – and I don’t mind saying that

“Initially I thought just give me the tweed suit and I will go in and yell at teenagers,” says Petrie, laughing. “I remember my first day was when we were shooting some very big assembly scenes and all the cast was in. All these young actors were so magical, it was kind of intoxicating; I am the age I am but I’m absolutely stuck in a 22-year-old’s body, so it was very easy to muck around and play with them.” 

Acknowledging that actors often refer to fellow castmates as family, Petrie says his experience on Sex Education was the first time that truly became a reality. “The legacy of it in terms of our personal lives is huge, and not least because of Connor [Swindells] who plays my son. Our relationship started off as one thing, a pair of actors working together, and then rapidly morphed into an almost father-son-like,” says Petrie, who even officiated Swindells’ wedding last year. “We are now great friends and I’m enormously proud of this extraordinarily talented young man. I think he’s a generational talent. Biggest gift of the entire experience – no question.”

Nurturing talent is something Petrie is undoubtedly passionate about. Having grown up in a military family that lived in Germany and Saudi Arabia, Petrie mentions he never had a role model or mentor who helped him into the industry. What he did have, though, was an innate passion for performing. “The only access to anything theatrical was watching the military amateur dramatics society that my mother was very heavily involved in. It flummoxes me to this day why I was so single-minded about [acting]; I don’t really have a good answer for it.”

One genre he does count as an early inspiration, however, is rom-com: “I’m a deeply romantic person at heart”. So why has he never done one? “I don’t think I was built for rom-coms in that sense. I would love to do one because when I left drama school, I was never considered as that leading man.”

A swift stint of studying French and drama at university only cemented his passion for performing. “I wanted to make my father proud of me, so I went to university because I thought that’s what I should do and people told me I needed something to fall back on. I think anybody who wants to do this profession can only have a plan A; if you have a plan B, that tends to be the thing you end up doing. 

“When it was discovered that I don’t really have to go to lectures, I didn’t and did as many plays as I could instead. The day I got kicked out of university was the day I got accepted into the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA); it was a remarkable day.”

What followed is what Petrie describes as a “glorious line of fractures” – a stream of projects that haven’t necessarily thrust him into the spotlight but enabled him to work on the exact type of roles he loves. “It can be a small part in a really wonderful project, but a lot of this industry is about perception. Utopia in the early 2010s did an extraordinary thing for television dramas as a concept and that was so beloved within the industry. I can’t not talk about The Night Manager and Sex Education – they do practical things like raising your profile but also show off what you can do. I think it’s far better to play interesting parts in wonderful projects than massive parts in so-so projects.” 

I have been asked more about The Night Manager than anything else in the past 10 years. It's an enormous privilege to be part of something like that

Talking of The Night Manager, the highly-anticipated second act of the beloved BBC thriller on New Year’s Day 2026 – a whole decade after the first season – is serendipitous timing for Petrie. “Ten years ago I was in Shakespeare in Love and was about to do The Night Manager; 10 years later, I’m also doing Shakespeare and waiting for The Night Manager to come out,” he explains. “[The first series] was always planned as a one-off but it went ballistic. We knew it was good and with any piece of work you hope it finds an audience, but The Night Manager landed beautifully.” 

To return to such a beloved and award-winning project – alongside the original cast including Tom Hiddleston, Hugh Laurie, and Olivia Colman – is no mean feat. “Nobody wanted to do it for the sake of doing it – not least Hugh and Tom because they’re both executive producers on the show. But when new scripts arrived from David Farr that might potentially bring us to a second season, it took on a momentum. It was remarkable to be sitting in the read-through 10 years on from the last one and hearing the same voices appear.

“Hugh and I became really good friends because we were in so many scenes together and we’ve spent a lot of time together over the past 10 years. Not only do I admire his career, but as a human being. I’m mildly in love with Hugh Laurie – and I don’t mind saying that. 

“I have been asked more about The Night Manager than anything else in the past 10 years. It's an enormous privilege to be part of something like that.”

Striking that happy medium between television and stage is what every actor wants to achieve – and Petrie believes they inform each other. “I finish Hamlet on 22 November and then I’m in front of a camera days later. They're two different disciplines, but the overarching detail you have to figure out with theatre reminds you of the detail you need to bring to all aspects of your work.” 

While I’m sure there will be an element of relief when Hamlet closes this weekend, one thing Petrie hasn’t taken for granted during the past few months is the thrill of being on the stage. “The insanity [you feel] standing backstage before your first entrance on your first preview of a full theatre of a thousand people – about 30 seconds before I go on, I think I have lost my mind. 

“I’ve always thought if someone literally tapped me on the shoulder and said ‘you don’t have to do it, there’s a car waiting for you and there’s no retribution’, I would snatch their hand off. To feel that, and then the extraordinary sensation having done it, is an intangible sense.” 

Talking of projects past and present, one thing that is omnipresent is Petrie’s refreshing passion for the industry – and it’s something, he promises, is not going away any time soon. “I still, to this day, feel like I’m only just getting going in this business, which is a lovely space to exist in. I have a boundless, labrador-like enthusiasm for this very weird industry. 

“I have come across bitter old actors in my time and I just think please do something else, or stop and find something that makes you happy. I’m never happier than when I’m in a group of actors.” 

Hamlet is at the National Theatre until 22 November 2025. The Night Manager is available to stream on BBC iPlayer on 1 January 2026. 

Read more: Jameela Jamil on navigating Hollywood and following her instincts