Of new cases may be slowing. The 2. 5 month lockdown on the chinese city of wuhan, where the pandemic started, has been lifted. Transport connections have been re established between the city of 11 Million People and the rest of the country. China registered no new deaths in its official coronavirus figures on tuesday. The american state of new york is on the cusp of having more confirmed virus cases than any single country. Only spain has more. The state reported its highest daily death toll from the pandemic on tuesday 731. But President Trump has again said he wants the economy to reopen soon. Now on bbc news, hardtalk. Welcome to hartog. I am stephen sackur. The global coronavirus pandemic has changed pretty much everything for almost everybody hardtalk. It is of course a Public Health emergency but it also is having massive economic social and cultural impacts. This very building usually houses our hardtalk studio. That is currently out of commission. Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, the show can go on, and my guest today is a much acclaimed british actor brian cox was currently in the smash hit hbo tv drama succession. Now, he is living in self isolation in upstate new york, but i am happy to say is able to talk to me. Brian cox in new york state, welcome to hardtalk. Welcome. Thank you. Thank you for inviting us into your home so to speak via your lap top. You have been living in brooklyn, now you are in a cabin in new york state. New york state of course is at the epicentre of the coronavirus epidemic in the us. What has life been like for you . Well, because i ama been like for you . Well, because i am a diabetic, i havent been engaging in anything apart from the president has person who has been doing wonders is my wife, she is fantastic. She has done the shopping and all of that, she is very meticulous about gloves and masks and bacterial wipes. She does the whole bit, and ijust sit here kind of like some kind of sacred cow. L sacred bull, i guess a sacred bull, i beg your pardon and you are laughing about it, but it is stressful, isnt it . Yes, it is very stressful. Have our two boys with us and they are beginning to get the cabin fever. I am not too bad. I and they are beginning to get the cabinfever. Iam not too bad. Iam quite reclusive. I spend a lot of time flitting between here and london, so i am quite good at being reclusive, quite good at doing. In fa ct, reclusive, quite good at doing. In fact, i think my wife is blessed that i am actually doing nothing for the first time, except with stuff like this, life has never been busier, which is the irony. But of course you , busier, which is the irony. But of course you, like everybody, looks beyond your own window and it is very striking at how the world is now watching what is happening u nfold now watching what is happening unfold in new york city. We are talking, you know, thousands dead, 100,000 or more who have been infected. How does that impact upon you . Because you have as you say a home in new york city, you have homes elsewhere, a home in london. Does it feel like new york is really suffering right now . And what i can tell, i am in contact with a few people, and they are fairly sensible and not going out. In the country it isa and not going out. In the country it is a little more different because in the country there is a sort of. Seems to be a bit more relaxed, but asi seems to be a bit more relaxed, but as i say, i am really not, because i have some responsibilities, i really decided that i really have cut myself off, but i know in new york. It is tough what is going on in new york. But also, there is so much kind of media hysteria, you know. It is sometimes difficult to know. It is sometimes difficult to know what is the right thing and what is the wrong thing. I find that, and especially with the american media, it is at an onslaught. In fact, american media, it is at an onslaught. Infact, i have american media, it is at an onslaught. In fact, i have almost. Iam very onslaught. In fact, i have almost. I am very happy to watch the bbc because it seems to be very sensible, and i get a little confused watching the ultra other channels because i think, what is going on . It is all a little over the top if you get my meaning. going on . It is all a little over the top if you get my meaning. I do. And when it talks confusion, there seems to be have some confusion in the mind of the american president , donald trump, who was saying for a long time the lockdown would not last long, americans needed and wa nted last long, americans needed and wanted to get back to work and keep the economy open. There is a dilemma for not just the economy open. There is a dilemma for notjust him, but for all governments and leaders is to get the balance right between the lockdown and the effort to really ove 1120 m e lockdown and the effort to really overcome this virus, but not destroy the economy. Do you think, from your Vantage Point in the us, that the americans have gotten it right right now . Well, there is still a lot of confusion. There is a lot of stuff, like, kushner is not going down particularly well, i was listening to an American General in charge of the katrina situation, and he believes there is a lot of hanky panky going on. Who is getting contracts hanky panky going on. Who is getting co ntra cts to hanky panky going on. Who is getting contracts to do what . There is an element where you feel it seems to bea element where you feel it seems to be a little bit you scratch my back, i will scratch your back going on. I find that kind of despicable. Really, i am find that kind of despicable. Really, iam more find that kind of despicable. Really, i am more concerned about the people, and i am more concerned about the. Just common sense of doing what you should do, which is not to have social contact, maintain your discipline of staying within your discipline of staying within your boundaries, and that is the best way to deal with it. At the moment there is a lot of headless chickens. Let me ask you what it is like as an actor with great experience who has lived with all sorts of different crises in a long career spanning sorts of different crises in a long career spanning almost six decades. What is it like to see all of the theatres in new york city dark, all of the theatres in london dark and empty . No filming effectively, no filming at all happening around the world on movies. Your industry is in total deep freeze right now. Absolutely. I mean, it is tragic, absolutely tragic. There doesnt seem to be any other way that we can avoid an not close theatres. It is an awful situation. Fully it is not going to last, but it is something we have to deal with for the moment hopefully. Interestingly enough, iam hopefully. Interestingly enough, i am involved, there is a lot of people doing independent virtual. Iam about people doing independent virtual. I am about to do a virtual film with three female directors in the uk, and there is a couple of us, one actorfrom la, and there is a couple of us, one actor from la, and and there is a couple of us, one actorfrom la, and from denmark, myself and we are doing this rather sweet, funny film about. Called the agoraphobic app society. Which is quite amusing. There is a lot impeding on people and i keep thinking about the edinburgh fringe, which is such a huge loss, and people like that have so much invested up there. My heart goes out to all of other theatre producers who are really, really having a tough time. One thing that is not going to happen in many people around the world will be sad to ponder is that succession, series iii was due to going to preproduction, and that is not happening. What is going to happen to series iii . We arejust on hold. We will resume as annette is a safety we will resume. The show was very popular and season three is there, they have got it, the guys have got it written, the guys and girls, and that is great. So it is ready to go, but of course we have to get our various people from around the globe and also how, what the location is, and also, interestingly enough, is do we acknowledge covid 19 in the next series . So there is a a lot of ifs and buts, buti series . So there is a a lot of ifs and buts, but i do think we will be going on. I dont think succession succession, it will be happening. Probably not until, i would have said safely august, september, july, august maybe. Believe me, i am going to come back to succession, but i wa nt to to come back to succession, but i want to flip the conversation a little bit and be more reflective as to you and your past, because as you say you are now hunkered down, you area say you are now hunkered down, you are a diabetic, you are over 70 so ina high are a diabetic, you are over 70 so in a high risk category when it comes to coronavirus. Sorry to mention it, but it is true. So this isa mention it, but it is true. So this is a tough time for you, but it strikes me that in your life you have known plenty of tough times, not least in your childhood and your youth. Do you think that has well prepared you for a time like this . You know, that is a great question, andi you know, that is a great question, and i think in many ways it has. I feel that the way that i have been very, very lucky in my profession because it is the one thing that my profession does not depend on insecurity. So we are always in a permanent state of insecurity, and there is nothing more insecure than oui there is nothing more insecure than our present time. So in a way, it falls into character quite easily. Where did you get your passion and drive for acting from, do you think . Because many people will not know that you came from a family which suffered a lot in your childhood. Your dad died of cancer when you adjust eight, your mum had serious Mental Illness and she couldnt really look after you, so siblings did much of that. And yet, despite leaving school early, not having good exam results, you were, it seems, absolutely determined to sort of get into acting and to make it. Where did that come from . Well, really comment came from my dad, because i didnt have a blissful childhood, my father passed away and my mother had a series of nervous breakdowns, and as a result, she had to have electric shock treatment, which was horrible. Anyway, before that, i had a relatively pleasant childhood, and one of the great celebrations is hogmanay, so as a little boy, i was always able to stay up late and watch people sing, get drunk, my mother used to make stea k get drunk, my mother used to make steak pie at four oclock in the morning her dressing gown. It was kind of a weird extraordinary time, and then my dad and my sister, my sister may, they used to put me on the coal bunker, which was my first stage in a window recess with curtains. And i used to perform at the age of 2. 5, i used to perform songs, i would limitations, which we re songs, i would limitations, which were politically incorrect today. So that was. And we always had a house full of people, people coming in and out. That is where i got the sense of performance, and the thing that happened to people, you could see something light up in them and they would be very. Even at that very young age, it stayed with me, and it kind of sort of marked me as far as my profession was concerned. And what is very striking is that you did come from pretty tough, poor working class roots, and after drama school and some fits and starts, you made it, both in stage, all the way to the National Theatre and in movies all the way to hollywood, and you were a working class actor success story, and it seems to me now there are probably fewer of those stories than there were in the 19605 those stories than there were in the 1960s and 70s. Dont get me started. It is my pate. The whole business of how we educate our young in relationship to the arts and how little we care and spend on our young. When i think of the 60s, which was a period of an extraordinary, extraordinary social ability, lad like me who had a grant, i was paid for by the Scottish Education authority, i went toa drama Scottish Education authority, i went to a drama school, i even had expenses paid. I actually did quite well, and even from. And i was rewarded for trying to do something, and that wasnt just rewarded for trying to do something, and that wasntjust me, that was the climate at the time, the 60s was like that. And it was that. Which one has seen slow, bit by bit eradicated and put to one side, you know, and i mean i am not going to dish anybody, you know, fared used to places like eton and harrow that they have this wonderful theatre establishment and they have spent the money and done it, but i do think somebody like me, it is almost impossible now. I mean, and especially now, we are going to have to reflect the now that goes on, and the now that is going on at the moment, our people are the working class people, other nurses, are the lorry drivers, are the carers in homes. These are the people that we now have two begin to start reflecting in a way. Who is to do so . It is fascinating your take on your own industry and how it fits into Wider Society because it would be fairto Wider Society because it would be fair to say that you have been a lifelong socialist . I have, yes. And its fascinating that you chose consciously in the 80s and since the 80s to spend a lot of your time in the home of free market capitalism and rugged individualism, the united states. Why . Earning a living. Earning a living. It is disappointing history because you look at what has happened and what was possible and i did the campaign for the labour party in 1997 and i thought we were onto something that we could really shift the paradyne once and for all and we didnt. It was also at the same time i thought margaret, i have to earn my living the paradyne because it is the same old, same old, we cannot 00 16 35,1000 00 16 36,989 break the shackles old, same old, we cannot break the s ha ckles of old, same old, we cannot break the shackles of student ism, and america has problems, huge huge problems and it is very oriented to wealth class, extremely unpleasant at paradigm. I was on bill marsh show and talking about socialism and they still regard that as red under they still regard that as red under the bed and you are going wait a minute, hang on . That is not what socialism is about. It is about suffrage and welfare, welfare for all and suffrage and welfare, welfare for allandi suffrage and welfare, welfare for all and i still believe in that and even though, as my brother would say, i have earned a crust or two. The passion and the belief is coming through loud and clear but i am also mindful, ive had made some notes about the hollywood movies, the projects you have been involved in, the famous doing of the original hannibal lector in man hunter, bourne identity, x men, braveheart, blockbuster projects and to be honest, a lot of it is about making megabucks for the big hollywood studios, so, here you are, the scottish socialist. In fairness to that, i have done as much independent films as i have done blockbuster films and the blockbuster films and the blockbuster films and the blockbuster films did allow me, the, it was not huge sums of money but it did allow me to function more on the independent market and ive always felt about the independent market. I have done, i think, i felt about the independent market. I have done, ithink, i mean felt about the independent market. I have done, i think, i mean my list of independent films is almost as great as my studio movies. And let me ask you on the question of where the movie industry is and the culture, martin scorsese, i think at the end of last year wrote a powerful piece about is concern that the movie business and the art for more particularly, was being polluted by the thought of superhero comic book novel which has become such a successful formula that in his view, and im quoting him, they are not his view, and im quoting him, they a re not really his view, and im quoting him, they are not really movies, they are theme parks, killing creativity. They are steadily eliminating artistic risk from this art form. Do you feel the same way . Im a little bit more temperate than he is but i do feel the same way. What i love now, what i think the key thing now is television. You look at television and he realised that television and he realised that television really has gone so way ahead of the cinema. The cinema has become very, very archaic in its thinking and being and its, it is, of course it is run, george figures, and now it has to be rethought because all of the best screenplays, and the best screenplays have gone after recent times. So i think that this cinema is very in the past. Television is something else. The long form, the writing is exceptional. Our writers on succession are all in their own rights brilliant writers. Let me dig into succession a little bit with you, brian, because it has been such a worldwide hit. For those who have not seen it, you play this ruthless, bullying media mogul, logan roy, who some people see as a sort of symbolic Rupert Murdoch style figure. Your performances are ferocious. You say and you have said when talking about it that you actually feel some sympathy for logan roy. You say that you empathise with him. I am wondering what it is about this ruthless bully that you like . Well, there is, we are seeing wonderful things at the moment, dont get me wrong. I think there are such amazing acts of courage and bravery going on, it is humbling what is happening out there but at the same time, you know, we hold the mirror up to nature. That is what we do. That is what actors do. Shakespeare said it and that is what we do. The mirror up to nature shows that nature in all of its flaws and we are very much in the middle of a kind of evolution where we have not quite evolved enough. We are quite disappointing, in many ways. The human experiment is quite disappointing because of the avarice and greed and all the stuff that goes with it and we see it every day, every time the american president opens his mouth, it is just. Popular let me stop you because that is such a depressing reflection. Succession, im old enough to have enjoyed west wing, for example when it came out and there was such hoping that because there was such hoping that because the whole staff, the president ial figure in west wing was basically a good guy. But stephen, it is not all about, it is about reflecting the time and we are in a very confused time. People like logan roy, he is a self made man, and this is the thing him and self made man, and this is the thing him and i have in common, he is self made. He has power and avarice and he is a nihilist, very much a nihilist. Andy cannot express, he loves his children and i asked Jesse Armstrong that question and i asked him does he love his children . And he said yes, he certainly loves his children but he has a funny way of expressing it. And i dont want to play the psychiatrist with you but it strikes me, you are a self made man and logan roy is the same, you have had four kids and those kids have had four kids and those kids have been brought up in a very different environment from yourself. Are you saying to me that you, like logan roy, fear that your kids have been brought up in an environment where they have been made spoilt and soft . Is that the experience of the modern child of a successful parent . I think that is a, there is the possibility of that. They are still in it young and forming themselves as personalities. We are here in this very enclosed environment now with my two youngest boys, my 18 year old and 15 year old boy and actually they are going to extraordinary times. They are going through difficult times as kids and trying to make sense of a world that does not seem to make any sense at the moment you know, it makes less sense now than it has ever done so it is very hard to know what do they do today, practice faith . Rotation . Follow spiritual idea . How do they be who they are and how can they be who they are and be with themselves . And that is tough. We, ourjob as artists and playwrights and actors and people of the theatre and people on television is to try and reflect the world as it is. You know, we do not makejudgements. The world as it is. You know, we do not make judgements. We say this is the world. It is ludicrous. I think the world. It is ludicrous. I think the world. It is ludicrous. I think the world is ludicrous. Years ago, when i did Titus Andronicus which was a play of shakespeare is that everybody dismissed as being an impossible play and then you realise in Titus Andronicus all the great ideas of shakespeares plays are in that play. And it is about the breakdown of structure. It is about rome finally imploding on itself and the horrible nurse that comes out of it. That was written in 1593, or 92, and it shows a world which is still ina and it shows a world which is still in a state of flux and that is what the drama does. That is what we reflect. That is ourjob. The drama does. That is what we reflect. That is ourjoblj the drama does. That is what we reflect. That is ourjob. I final thought then. That continues to be yourjob andi thought then. That continues to be yourjob and i can tell from your interview that you are determined to make sure you keep going once this coronavirus is over, there is logan roy to revisit and you have done everything from Titus Andronicus to king lear in the past, you did lyndonjohnson on king lear in the past, you did Lyndon Johnson on Broadway King lear in the past, you did lyndonjohnson on broadway and are you as determined as ever to find these huge hearts that say so much about the times we live in . For example, you said during the Lyndon Johnson show, which is very physically demanding, you said i took it on because it was a challenge and at my age i wanted to see if the old muscles are still working. Seems like they asked. They are. But there is the other side of it. Ijust did this thing for the bbc in scotland, a character, you probably never saw it, but i think it was on bbc four called bob servant, and extreme eccentric coming from my home town and that is a whole different thing. Quite comedic, funny and im doing this thing about staying in the house and wash your hands on all of that. It is a public broadcast message. That is the work. That is what we do. That is the greatjoy of what we do. That is the greatjoy of what we do. The difference. We cannot take sides. We have to empathise, never sympathise, empathise, never sympathise, empathise and show the world. This is as it is, like it or not. Brian cox, it has been a real pleasure talking to you on hardtalk. Delighted to talk to you, stephen. Like i say, i been watching your interviews for the last three or four and interviews for the last three or fourand admire them interviews for the last three or four and admire them enormously. A lovely way to finish. I do appreciate that hello. We have had clear skies across parts of Northern England and southern scotland. And some of our weather watchers have been taking pictures outside their windows of their gardens of the super pink moon, such as this one from county durham. We have had clear skies, but cloud amounts have been increasing. And, really, through the day on wednesday, although there will be a bit of sunshine breaking through, it will feel quite warm. There will be more cloud in the skies then weve seen in recent days. So this is how we start wednesday morning, then. A weather front bringing thicker clouds across parts of Northern Ireland, northern and western scotland, some outbreaks of light rain here. And further south across england and wales, a bit more cloud than weve seen recently. Probably the best of the sunshine on wednesday for Northern England into the southern scotland as well. Temperatures doing pretty well, up to around 23 degrees down towards the south east, but quite widely in the high teens, a little bit cooler for parts of scotland and Northern Ireland. And if you are across england and wales and you suffer from hay fever, you will probably notice weve got high levels of pollen out there at the moment. Into wednesday evening then, and overnight into thursday, this weather front in the north clips a bit further south. A few spots of drizzle but not very much on it. Further south, its going to be a frost free start to your thursday morning, and a bit of sunshine from the word go as well. So not a bad day on thursday, a lot of dry weather. But regardless of what the weather is doing, of course that doesnt change the rules on self isolating and social distancing. Stay at home and stay safe wherever you can. But in the sunnier spells in the south, we are likely to see temperatures up to about 22 degrees or so on thursday. Further north, a little cooler in scotland and Northern Ireland as well. Looking ahead towards the easter weekend, it will be all change as we start to see weather fronts slowly moving in from the west, heading their way eastwards, bringing a little bit of rain at times. Equally, therell be some drier weather, if youre hoping to get a little bit of gardening done before the easter weekend. For good friday itself, we start off a lot of dry weather, but more cloud and showers working in from the west. Central and Eastern England probably staying dry and pretty warm here for a quite good part of the day, in fact temperatures reaching around 2a celsius. The cloud and showers further north and west will edge their way further eastwards through the rest of easter weekend. So a bit of a mixed picture, one or two showers around, equally some spells of sunshine through into the easter weekend. But you will notice that things will start to turn a little bit cooler. But dont forget, we have got high levels of pollen out there. Stay at home and stay safe where you can. This is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. Im david eades. A second night in intensive care for boris johnson. His condition is said to be stable. In france, more than 10,000 people are known to have died from the coronavirus. Tougher new lockdown measures include no physical exercise outside the home. As the american toll continues to rise, President Trump says the country will soon have over 100,000 ventilator machines. But in south africa, a coronavirus dividend as rival gangs agree an unprecedented truce in cape town. Hello and welcome to audiences in the uk and around the world. Were covering all the latest coronavirus developments