Costas is a role that perhaps unfairly dominates Conti's career. The character who famously inspired so much heart-fluttering for those trapped in the daily grind between the microwave and the tumble dryer was possibly one of the least challenging for this feet-on-the-ground actor who first broke through to public prominence in the TV series The Glittering Prizes in 1976. He sits in the Greenwich Theatre cafe, his hair now more salt than pepper, and smilingly protests, 'I'm in the entertainment business, not the art business.' Yet he began life intending to be a classical musician, and an impressively wide-ranging career includes work with directors such as Ridley Scott, on Conti's first film, The Duellists, and Robert Altman, on The Dumb Waiter. Even when he appeared in the more mainstream Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence with David Bowie, his character - an interpreter in a prisoner-of-war camp - spoke Japanese for the majority of the film, hardly an achievement in the 'lite' category.
But, as conversation progresses, it becomes clear that when Conti talks about 'entertainment' he is referring to the actor's duty to make a work accessible, whether it is dealing with sex on a boat on a Greek island, or the inner workings of Hamlet's heart. That is precisely the quality that has drawn him to John Barrymore, the former screen idol - and, incidentally, Drew Barrymore's grandfather --whose stage interpretations of Richard III and Hamlet redefined Shakespearean performance at the start of the 20th century. 'What he did 60 years ago was terrific for his time - it was so modern - it was none of that... balderdash' - here Conti demonstrates by raising his hands and quavering theatrically like an old ham. 'So many actors were doing Shakespeare like that, long after Barrymore died, Gielgud especially. But Barrymore really allowed you to see the man.'