Alas, poor Hamlet. We knew him well. A fellow of infinite indecision. The most quotable and most quoted of all dramatic heroes. Breathes there a man (or woman, for that matter), with soul so dead, who never to himself (or herself) has said: “I think that I could play Hamlet”?

Jude Law has just been booked to play Hamlet in the West End. Nothing odd about that. He is a talented film star, the most bankable strutter and fretter on screen, and a celebrity. David Tennant has been cast as Hamlet by the Royal Shakespeare Company. Nothing odd about that. Doctor Who is a television star, a sexy dude, and a celebrity, on this side of the Atlantic at least. It is a sufficient box-office cause to pick a celebrity as Hamlet; though not a necessary one. Hamlet himself said that he was too much i’ th’ Sun. No! Not all celebs were Prince Hamlet, nor were meant to be. But, though Equity may object, there are reasons other than thrift, Kenneth Branagh, thrift, to cast unprofessional celebrities in Shakespeare. For Shakespeare invented what it is to be human. We identify with his people.

Tony Blair does not possess enough introspection (or uncertainty) for Hamlet. But, depending on your view, he could play a rabble-rousing Prince Harry, Romeo or Malvolio. The Prime Minister for Macbeth. He has the accent, and the miscalculation. But can he be bloody, bold and resolute as well as a desiccated statistician? To cast Ming as King Lear would be unkind. Who would have thought the old man to have so much blood in him. Polonius, perhaps? All the world’s a stage. All of us play many parts. Celebrity casting is merely following the Master’s lead.