Taking Sides and Richard Strauss in Collaboration by Ronald Harwood (Chichester and West End, 2008–9) He had previously played the other central role in Taking Sides in the West End, with Pinter directing. In 2006 he premièred his second one-man show, this one on Shakespeare, Sweet William, and in 2009 he worked with Peter Brook for the first time in Love is My Sin for a European Tour and in New York. In 2010 he returned to Chichester to play the title role in Ibsen's The Master Builder, and the following year Dr Fabio in The Syndicate by Eduardo de Filippo opposite Ian McKellen. In 2012 he played his fifth consecutive Chichester season as Antony in Antony and Cleopatra opposite Kim Cattrall. Notable performances since then have been as Edgar in Strindberg's The Dance of Death, adapted by Howard Brenton, at the Gate Theatre, as John of Gaunt in Richard II (RSC), and as Anthony Blunt in Alan Bennett's Single Spies, at the Rose Theatre Kingston. In 2014 he performed the title role in King Lear for Theatre for a New Audience in New York, before undertaking a further tour of his solo Shakespeare show Sweet William (Oregon, Tel Aviv, France). He recorded the part of Euripides in Macedonia by David Rudkin for Radio 3, and in 2015 plans to take his solo show Anton Chekhov to Moscow. In 2015 he performed Sweet William in Argentina and Uruguay at the Festival Shakespeare Buenos Aires and Festival Shakespeare Uruguay, organized by Yorick Entertainment Group. Other work In 1983 Pennington appeared as Moff Jerjerrod in the Star Wars film Return of the Jedi alongside fellow Old Vic alum James Earl Jones. He also played Michael Foot in The Iron Lady with Meryl Streep; and among his notable TV appearances have been in the title role of Oedipus Rex and in the television movie The Return of Sherlock Holmes. He has also played Holmes's nemesis, Professor Moriarty in two BBC Radio dramatizations of the Holmes short stories The Final Problem in 1992 and The Empty House in 1993. He is the author of the book Are You There, Crocodile? which combines biographical material about the Russian playwright Anton Chekhov with an account of the writing of his highly successful one-man show about Chekhov; the full text of which is included. He has also written three books about individual Shakespeare plays, Sweet William -