An Englishman Abroad is a 1983 BBC television drama film based on the true story of a chance meeting of actress Coral Browne with Guy Burgess, a member of the Cambridge spy ring who spied for the Soviet Union while an officer at MI6. The production was written by Alan Bennett and directed by John Schlesinger. Browne stars as herself. Plot The film is set in Moscow in 1958, after Burgess had defected to the Soviet Union in 1951 with Donald Maclean when it became apparent that Maclean was about to be investigated by British intelligence. Burgess barges into Browne's dressing room in the interval of a touring Shakespeare Memorial Theatre production of Hamlet, in which she portrayed Gertrude, and charms her. Later on she is invited to his Moscow flat, finding it with some difficulty, to measure him for a suit that he would like ordered from his London tailor. On returning to London, she visits several high-class gentlemen's outfitters to purchase his requirements. Film cast Alan Bates as Guy Burgess Coral Browne as herself Charles Gray as 'Charles' playing Claudius Harold Innocent as Rosencrantz Vernon Dobtcheff as Guildenstern Czeslaw Grocholski as general Matthew Sim as boy Mark Wing-Davey as Hamlet Faina Zinova as hotel receptionist Douglas Reith as Toby Peter Chelsom as Giles Judy Gridley as Tessa Bibs Ekkel as scarf man Alexei Jawdokimov as Tolya Molly Veness as Mrs Burgess Denys Hawthorne as tailor Roger Hammond as shoe shop assistant Charles Lamb as George Trevor Baxter as pyjama shop manager Charles Gray's character was simply named 'Charles' but in the real events on which the play is based, his character would have been the actor Mark Dignam. During the film, Burgess refers to one of the actors in the version of 'Hamlet' he's just seen, playing the part of Laertes. "I like the look of Laertes. He goes rather well in to tights" says Burgess. "That's what he thinks" replies Browne, to which Burgess responds: "Looks like he put a couple of King Edward's down there". The actor they were discussing would have been Edward Woodward in the Moscow production. Michael Redgrave, Dorothy Tutin, Julian Glover, Anthony Nicholls, Eileen Atkins, Ian Holm and Edward de Souza were all members of the Shakespearean troupe involved with this tour of Russia, but they play no part in Bennett's storyline. Production Rather than film in the Soviet Union, Schlesinger used