THE name Paola Dionisotti may be a mouthful to remember, but the actress who has been appearing on our TV screens since the mid-1970s is currently mixing two Royal Shakespeare Company plays with a cameo appearance on TV’s hottest property Game Of Thrones.

The actress is bringing her role in Shakespeare’s Henry IV Part I and II to Newcastle in the autumn and freely admits that her first stint onstage involves the smallest women’s parts in all of the histories.

“Then, two years ago I was spoiled because I did Richard II which had the biggest women’s parts. It’s rather intriguing to be in this very male play and the roles of women are played from a deeply male angle,” she says.

She took on the role of Mistress Quickly because it was a fun role and follows a long period in her acting career where in everything from Harbour Lights to Miss Marple, she has been cast as fiery and defiant.

“I’m not. I’m quite a butterfly of a person and it was great to explore a different side of me.

It’s my physiognomy and I found it frustrating. When I was in the Actors’ Company and we cast it ourselves and decided to do King Lear. I thought this is my chance and put in a bid for Cordelia and nobody saw me as that. I wanted to explore being the youngster because I’m a middle child. I can still remember the meeting where it was made very clear to me that they didn’t think it was appropriate. I recall bursting into tears and my colleagues were horrified.

A few days later one said, ‘I realised you were Italian and the crying was a different matter for you’. I was quite taken aback by that,” says Dionisotti, who ended up being cast as a spear carrier and then mad sister Goneril.

She based her role of Mistress Quickly on the fact that this was an innkeeper who loved Falstaff (played by Sir Antony Sher) because “only if you love someone can you let them get away with what she does. She provides a haven with endless credit from the sound of it and he provides her with language. She adores his wit and underneath it he is harshly in touch with what people are really like”.

Dionisotti, who is 67, calls herself a “boom” baby living through what is now the tail end of 1960s society which is often being trawled through the courts at the moment. “There are endless contradictions of the 1960s and we are forever young as a result,” she says.

On returning to her severe side for Game Of Thrones, she says: “My agent got it for me and I had never heard of it for my sins. It was through my daughter that I realised that is was something that was a career move to put on my CV. I do not wish to diminish the success that HBO has had with this series, but I have not read the books and there is so much secrecy that surrounds the filming of this that if you do go in, like I did, to play a couple of scenes you are absolutely in the dark. You could be doing the commercial for something, quite honestly, you have no idea who you are or what the world is,” says Dionisotti.

She spent half the night before shooting watching what footage the film company gave her and then was surprised that a guard wasn’t put on her door while she watched some of the first and the third series.

“I did watch my part in series four, but luckily I’m mainly in the dark because I do look horrendous. I look as scary as hell,” she jokes.

Was Dionisotti aware that Game Of Thrones is also a bit of a bonkbuster?

“I wasn’t aware of any of this, but it grew on me during the night while I was watching the boxsets, but I’m delighted to have done it given that it was a popular thing. I mean there has been Harry ‘Why wasn’t I in it’ Potter in a career where you’re watching things and wondering why you’re not in it. For once I can say I’ve been in something like that.”

The actress will also never forget her first visit to Newcastle in the 1970s and says although there is something wonderful about performing at Stratford there is something about the excitement in the Newcastle Theatre Royal auditorium which is quite special.

“My first performance was in The Taming Of The Shrew and you’d never imagine it, but I was the Shrew,” laughs Dionisotti.

  • The RSC season appears at Newcastle Theatre Royal from September 25 to October 11. Henry IV Part I runs Sep 25 to Oct 4, 7.30pm (matinees Sep 27 and Oct 2 & 4, 1.30pm), Henry IV Part II Sep 26 to Oct 4, 7.30pm and The Two Gentlemen of Verona runs Oct 7 to 11, 7.30pm (matinees Oct 9 & 11, 1.30pm).
  • Tickets from £13. Theatre Royal Box Office: 08448-112121 or book online at theatreroyal.co.uk