Thank goodness Brian Cox and co are making a drama out of a crisis

Brian Cox will be making one of his last stage performances in a satire about banker Fred Goodwin and the 2008 financial crash (Picture: Lia Toby) | Getty Images

Brian Cox’s performance as the ghost of economist Adam Smith sounds like one to watch

Don’t make a drama out of a crisis, as someone may have once said. Clearly, no one told Brian Cox, award-winning writer James Graham and the National Theatre of Scotland. And it’s a good thing too.

For the Dundee-born star, of Succession fame, will play the ghost of 18th-century economist and philosopher Adam Smith in a new play, called Make It Happen, about the downfall of Royal Bank of Scotland boss Fred Goodwin amid the 2008 financial crash.

It is, apparently, a "bitingly funny” satire that may be one of the last chances to see Cox perform in the flesh. Fittingly, it will preview in July at Dundee Rep, where he began his stage career in 1961 at the age of 15, and then be performed as part of Edinburgh International Festival.

Speaking to The Scotsman, Cox said that Smith’s ghost has “a real go at Fred Goodwin and becomes his conscience, in a way”. So he may be speaking for many of us. However, 17 years on, it probably is just about the right time to have a good laugh about it all.

Thank goodness Brian Cox and co are making a drama out of a crisis

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