By Simon Carter

A Macclesfield teacher who taught local children for a quarter-century, has shared the stage with an acting legend.

Award-winning actor Jeremy Irons has just took centre stage with former King's School teacher and design expert Michael Patey-Ford when they performed together in a Devon village production.  

You may know his breakout role as Charles Ryder in Brideshead Revisited, or as Scar from The Lion King, but Irons will now also be known to Maxonians as the Hollywood actor that performer with an ex-Macclesfield teacher.

Michael, who was Head of Information Resources for 25 years from 1991 to 2016, had been cajoled by his wife Gillian Banner, a former King's English teacher, to sign up to perform in A Midsummer Night's Dream.

It was Michael's first part in 21 years, where he struck up a working relationship with Irons.

What he didn't realise was that he would be acting opposite one of his all time heroes, rehearsing and then taking the stage with the globally recognised Oscar, Emmy and Toni winner. Jeremy, 75, had flown into the idyllic 5,000 acre Flete Estate, where Michael and Gillian now live, on the behest of their friend and neighbour Rob Heyland to take part in the mesmerising Shakespearian fantasy. 

Rob and Jeremy have been life-long friends, first striking up their enduring relationship before thefilming of the ground-breaking television epic 'Brideshead Revisited' and even though he only had a week between international filming commitments, he wasdelighted to join up with the village's amateur theatricals.

Rob had earmarked theacting great for one of Shakespeare's most memorable comic creations, the bumptious buffoon and would-be thespian Bottom, with whom Queen Titania falls in love, even though he has been magically given the head of a donkey.

Michael, whose last part was in The King's School's production of Habeas Corpus in 1992, plays thedirector of the group of yokel actors, Peter Quince, who has to manage Bottom as they perform their own play for the forest gathering.

The two share the stage at a performance in Devon.

Michael, 70, wasn't keen on the project initially, but as Gillian said, somewhat bluntly, "Listen you'll be dead soon, just get on and do it." "I am glad she forced me into taking the part in what became one of the most amazing and enjoyable experiences of my life." 

"The Director Rob, who worked alongside Mark Rylance for goodness sake for the Royal Shakespeare Company, was quite blunt with us amateurs. You'll have to run your lines day in day out, wherever you are whatever you are doing, keep running through them. 

"I spent hours walking along the bank of the River Erme, near my home in Holbeton, just rehearsing to myself. Jeremy comes in and has four days to learn his lines, a much bigger part and is word perfect on the night.

"That said, it did take him some time in rehearsals and he must have worked round the clock to get it all right on the night, and all just to volunteer for his friend and to help a few locals."

Michael was a teacher at King's School until seven years ago.

"We played for four nights with one matinee performance to a sell-out audience of just 170 people each show, in a perambulatory production; the audience followed us to five different locations around the breathtakingly beautiful grounds of Mothecombe House.

"It is such a stunning setting and was used for Emma Thompson's Sense and Sensibility and Netflix's recent remake of Rebecca. 

"But what was more extraordinary was spending so much time rehearsing and then performing withJeremy Irons. He was very modest and you only began to understand the magnitude of his achievements when you quizzed him.

"I asked him about one of my favourite films 'Margin Call', which is based on the fall of the Lehman Brothers Bank, and how he created such a charismatic entrance. I wondered what it was like to work with Meryl Streep in the French Lieutenant's Woman and I couldn't help but ask about working with Robert de Niro, and, of course, whether I matched up." 

One of a few performers to win an Emmy, Tony and Oscar, you can watch the Isle of Wight born-actor picking up his Oscar in the early 90s, at the top of this article. (Image - Copyright Owned by Jeremy Irons Unchanged https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jeremy_Irons.jpg CC 3.0)

"Jeremy never acted like a star; he didn't try to steal the show, and was just a joy to work with and get to know. He came with his wife, the celebrated actor Sinead Cusack,and his wonderful dog Smudge, who travels everywhere with him and who even acted in the play."

"It was a great experience. I don't know if I'll ever meet him again but it was incredibly special to take the stage with one of Britain's greatest ever actors." 

By Simon Carter

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