SEBASTIAN SHAKESPEARE: Tickets in the West End are truly, madly overpriced, says Stage star Juliet Stevenson

By Sebastian Shakespeare for the Daily Mail

Published: 19:09 EST, 9 July 2015 | Updated: 07:09 EST, 10 July 2015

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Juliet Stevenson, star of Truly, Madly, Deeply admitted she can no longer afford West End plays because tickets have become so expensive

She is one of Britain’s top actresses, with awards recognition for her roles in dramas such as Truly, Madly, Deeply, but Juliet Stevenson has admitted she can no longer afford to see West End plays because tickets have become so expensive.

She was unable to watch her friend Dame Harriet Walter perform recently in Death Of A Salesman, she told The Stage.

‘I clicked on to try and buy tickets and it was going to come to £285,’ says Stevenson, who had just finished appearing on the West End stage herself.

‘So I rang up Harriet and said: “At the moment — having been in this wonderful building [the Young Vic] and been paid the Equity minimum — I can’t really afford to see your play. I have two children and it’s going to cost nearly £300.”

‘And if I’m saying that, what are most other people saying, who are earning less? I profoundly regret the way the West End has just allowed this to happen, there’s no ceiling.’

Stevenson, who has an Olivier Award and several Bafta nominations under her belt, also criticises the use of booking fees by ticket providers.

‘Why should you have to pay to buy a product?

‘You don’t go into a shop and pay the shop for the privilege of buying a product from them. Booking fees are completely scandalous.’

A survey by The Stage newspaper recently reported that the most expensive West End ticket had more than doubled in three years — from £97.50 to £202.25 this year.

The costliest tickets now average £86.78, with the price rising to more than £100 for a musical.

‘I don’t go to the West End,’ Stevenson says. ‘Lots of people don’t. The West End is increasingly like a country which belongs to somebody else. It belongs to big business in some way.

‘The majority of people can’t afford to go, so it becomes a thing for tourists for whom the currency exchange is in their favour at that moment, or just people who have got lots of money.

‘I suppose as long as there are people who will pay those prices it will go on, but it is excluding a huge, huge majority of people.’

The BBC’s Wimbledon presenter Clare Balding has been contemplating getting a tattoo. Clare declares: ‘In the last week I’ve been repeating to myself the line from The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel: “Everything will be all right in the end. If it’s not all right, it’s not yet the end.” Who knows, I may have to get it inked on my arm.’ But will it be all right in the end for her much-derided highlights show Wimbledon 2day?

It's Ramsay's son - at the double

Gordon Ramsay posed with his 15-year-old son Jack this week while on a family holiday in Cornwall

Gordon Ramsay has posted a family photo on social media which we can safely file under the heading ‘chip off the old block’.

The Scots-born chef posed with his 15-year-old son Jack this week while on a family holiday in Cornwall. With his blond hair and burly physique, Ramsay Junior is clearly going to be a dead ringer for his pugnacious old man.

As well as his father’s rugged looks, Jack’s also inherited a love of football and, according to Gordon, a fondness for fruity language.

Veteran broadcaster Lord Bragg thinks members of the BBC Trust should resign in protest as the governing body was not consulted over the Beeb footing the bill for licence fees for over-75s. ‘I was very disturbed by the BBC agreeing to pay,’ he said before a screening of BBC2’s new documentary about him. ‘Why don’t they resign? It’s called “Trust” and they are trusted with looking after the interest of the licence-fee payers.’