The ­eccentricities of Dumbledore actor Michael Gambon from the woman who was his ‘earwig’

The ­eccentricities of Dumbledore actor Michael Gambon from the woman who was his ‘earwig’

Acting is like quicksilver. It’s difficult to pin down exactly what makes one actor great and another merely good. As a critic, you can run the gamut of the thesaurus and it’s still hard to capture a truly great performance with your pen. What, then, of an actor’s whole oeuvre? How do you convey their career in a meaningful way, so mercurial is the talent, so ephemeral is the product they leave behind, especially when major parts of their career…