ONE of the bonuses of This England - The Histories has been watching the same actor moving through Shakespeare's plays.

David Troughton as the pretender to the throne and then Henry IV has been one such, Desmond Barrit as Falstaff another and, in this production, William Houston comes magnificently to maturity in the title role.

We have wondered, in the Henry IVs, whether he was up to kingship.

Is he too weak, too frivolous, too shallow for this monumental, dramatic challenge?

Can he measure up to all those who have worn the crown before?

But we need wonder no more.

Like Shakespeare's creation, this is a towering Henry, a king who can command his men's devotion and send fear into his enemy.

Houston dominates the stage and delivers the resonant and familiar lines with power and clarity.

He is surrounded by a strong cast including Michael Thomas as the dependable Exeter and Alexis Daniel as the preening, posturing Dauphin while James O'Donnell is a Baldrick-style Boy and Adrian Schiller is a believable Fluellen. Catherine Walker is a French princess to steal any man's heart.

But there's more to Edward Hall's production than fine casting.

He takes the opportunity to explore aspects of Englishness where patriotic fervour is recognisable on the football terraces and individualistic contempt for authority slides into petty theft and confidence trickery.

His Chorus is scattered through a motley army drawn from the countless conflicts we remember where England drew on its peoples' inner strength in time of challenge to overcome mighty odds.

Billy Bragg's specially composed songs effectively underscore the theme.

Michael Pavelka's design with its vast war machine is starkly simple but effectively challenges the audience's imagination, as Shakespeare charges us.

Although some of the fussy details in the opening scenes irritate, this is a production which not only rises triumphantly to fill the space of the main theatre, it literally bursts from the stage and fills the whole auditorium with dramatic action and compelling performances.