The Royal Shakespeare Company’s excellent new production of Henry V, having just closed at Stratford, is now on its way to London’s Barbican to join Richard II and the two parts of Henry IV in a historical sequence given the title King and Country.

This looks set, I would say, to make a star of Alex Hassell, the fine actor who plays Prince Hal.

Critics, indeed, have said at much. The Daily Telegraph’s Dominic Cavendish, for instance, spoke of his “strong cheek-boned, Action Man” good looks featuring in this “Shakespearian event of the autumn”.

His full possession of the ‘phwoar factor’ was confirmed by a journalist friend who interviewed him during summer rehearsals, his strapping physique revealed in a skimpy vest, and found it hard to fix on the matter in hand.

In fact, he is already an actor well on in his career. At 35, he is a full 12 years older than Kenneth Branagh when he made his name as Stratford’s 1984 Hal, in a production again later seen at the Barbican and subsequently filmed.

That I recognised Adrian Noble’s production as a classic is reflected in the fact that I still have the programme, which reminds me of Brian Blessed’s role as Exeter and Patricia Routledge, as Mistress Quickly.

The two were also present in a later production from the spring 1984 Stratford season. I have the programme for this, too. It carries an advertisement for Henry V, which quotes the Guardian’s critic, presumably Michael Billington, on “an unusually strong opening for a Stratford season”, adding: “Rarely do we get the best first.”

The best? Arguably not, for this second programme is for the hugely acclaimed Richard III, which won “bottled spider” Antony Sher both the Evening Standard and Laurence Oliver Awards as best actor.

Sir Antony, of course, is in King and Country as Sir John Falstaff. Kill for seats.