Three years ago, Richard Durden attended the memorial for a director he knew. During the service, Dame Judi Dench read a speech from Antony and Cleopatra.
Shakespeare’s epic tragedy about the love story between Mark Anthony and Cleopatra has much to say about ageing, famously featuring the line: ‘Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale her infinite variety’. Moved by Dame Judi’s recital, Richard began to cry. “It was the most electrifying thing I’ve ever heard,” he recalls now. “I remember saying to my wife: ‘You will never hear that again from somebody like that - and she’s 85!”
The more we can do to make that passage into old age more comfortable, more normal, more cherished and more accepted, the better.
‘Let’s change how we age’
Richard, who rubbed shoulders with Jack Nicholson on the set of 1989’s Batman and appeared in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, is reflecting upon later life as he takes time out from filming Age UK’s new advertisement campaign in a stately home in Buckinghamshire. In the ad, which centres on Age UK’s new strapline, ‘Let’s change how we age’, Richard walks through rooms full of antiques and priceless paintings, asking why our society cherishes old items but gives so little attention to older people and the challenges they’re facing.
“I admire this campaign because it makes the valid point that we go to museums and see 16th century paintings and think they’re fantastic, but then ask, ‘Well, who’s that old git over there?’” As I say in the film, ‘One day you’ll be older too’, so the more we can do to make that passage into old age more comfortable, more normal, more cherished and more accepted, the better.”
Ask Richard why it’s important we change the way we age, and he mentions the road signs you often see near retirement homes, with older people illustrated as hunched-over figures, leaning on a stick. “I don’t think that’s right,” he says with a shake of the head.
He also reflects on the memory of his grandmother, who he assumes had dementia though it was never diagnosed, and who was put in another room, described by others as “a bit confused”. These generalisations don’t sit well with Richard, who at 80 makes sure to go to the gym three times a week, still plays cricket, and whose 91-year-old brother maintains a thriving social life.
Let's change how we age
“We're an ageist society,” Richard tells us in the 60-second version of our ad. “We write older people off - able workers, doctors, teachers, carers - people with such potential.”
Inspirational older figures
Growing up, Richard had his fair share of inspirational older figures. One in particular springs to mind - a teacher who had fought in the Korean War and won the Military Cross, played hockey for Scotland, and directed all the school plays. Richard kept in touch with him over the years and recalls how, aged 85, his former teacher was still leading groups in Florence, teaching people about Renaissance painting. “He still had that fire,” says Richard of the man who successfully predicted he’d become an actor. “It was exactly the same fire as he had when he taught me - it never left him.”
Richard understands many older people aren’t so fortunate in old age - and has had his own realisations about its surprising effects. “You sort of become invisible,” he reveals. “Or think you become invisible walking down the street, because you’re not like you were when you were 30 or 40. I remember doing a play when I was about 60, and the rest of the cast were incredibly nice to me. I suddenly thought in a blinding realisation, ‘Of course they’re being nice to you - you’re an old man. Or they think of you as being an old man’.”
With a career that spans almost 60 years, Richard considers himself lucky to work in a profession in which more life brings more wisdom and experience for his acting roles. “The one advantage is that you could work until you’re 90. James, the director of this ad, made a film with Michael Caine [2018’s King of Thieves] when he was 88 or something.”
I’ve noticed the country becoming increasingly neglectful of many things, including older people.
A new direction
The ‘James’ in question is James Marsh, whose film Man on Wire won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 2009. And more recently he directed The Theory of Everything, about the life of Stephen Hawking, which earned five Academy Award nominations - with actor Eddie Redmayne winning in the Best Actor category.
“I don’t live in the United Kingdom and haven’t for a long time, but when I’ve come back in the last 10 years, I’ve noticed the country becoming increasingly neglectful of many things, including older people,” says James. “I think the message of this TV spot is that we need to change how we perceive older people and not to disregard them because they’re older. It’s a category that older people are put in that dismisses them. We must remind ourselves that every older person has lived a life, had experiences, learned from them hopefully, and has a lot to offer.”
James has lived in Denmark for many years and is full of admiration for their treatment of older people. “It feels there is a much better way of organising a society around how we take care of vulnerable people. My wife has older relatives in Denmark and there is a better system of care for older people. We pay a lot of taxes there but there isn’t a kind of surcharge on you as you get older. I feel that Britain is very deficient in that regard, when it comes to care homes and the treatment of older people.”
Approaching this project naturally made James think about his own personal experiences. While at 61 he admits to noticing physical changes, such as feeling the cold more with each passing year, it was his maternal grandmother he drew inspiration from. “She was a very strong person, and very intelligent even though she had no real education,” explains James. “My mother died when I was young, so my grandmother was a very important part of my life. So, I thought of her and how she had to deal with some of the indignities of old age, including ill health.”
Parting words
The director is also full of praise for Richard, who he says embodies the spirit of this campaign. “You can look beyond older people and not really see them, but they have so much to offer,” reflects James. “In Richard’s case it’s a great acting talent and a robustness at 80.”
That robustness is illustrated by Richard’s parting words on the topic of age. “Don’t give into it - don’t think of yourself as an 80-year-old or a 70-year-old,” suggests Richard. “The thing about old age is that you know you’re nearer the end than the beginning, so ‘don’t let the b*st*rds grind you down’, as [actor] Albert Finney said.”
