In 1976, as the National Theatre moved into its new home on London’s South Bank, its literary manager Kenneth Tynan observed: ‘It’s taken 123 years to get here: 60 of Victorian idealism, half a century of dithering, and a final 13 years in the planning and building.’

Today, still under Nick Hytner’s dynamic and broad-church directorship, the National is in rude health both artistically and economically.