Blair: I'll be treading the boards again

Tony Blair has agreed to resurrect his interest in acting when he leaves Number 10 after he was approached about a major stage role by his close friend, the artistic director of the Old Vic, Kevin Spacey.

With speculation growing over the exact date of his departure from Downing Street and how he will handle life as an ex-Prime Minister, Blair appears to have taken Gordon Brown and his closest Westminster friends by surprise with the plan to star in an autumn production of Arthur Miller's The Crucible. It is likely to be a sell-out.



A proof copy of the theatre programme, likely to become a collector's item, contains a cast list showing Tony Blair's name against the part of Reverend John Hale. Miller's classic play is ostensibly based on the 17th-century Salem witch trials and warns of the dangers of religious fundamentalism. Reverend Hale is a renowned expert on witchcraft and proves a noble character.

The Prime Minister, whose father-in-law, Tony Booth, is an actor, showed an early interest in drama at Fettes College where he played the role of Stanhope in RC Sheriff's First World War drama Journey's End. He has since had a bit part in a Russian soap opera, voiced a cartoon version of himself welcoming The Simpsons to Britain and appeared in a sketch with Catherine Tate for last month's Comic Relief, his deadpan delivery of the line 'Am I bovvered?' winning plaudits from the viewers and BBC executives.

As a result he is believed to have received numerous offers to send himself up in the finale of Ricky Gervais's Extras, a new Only Fools and Horses Christmas special and a proposed Doctor Who storyline in which a Prime Minister goes back in time to correct his past mistakes.