Derek Jacobi and Arlene Phillips picked for career-crowning Olivier awards

The actor is to get the lifetime achievement honour and the choreographer the special award at this year’s theatre prizes in April

Sir Derek Jacobi and Dame Arlene Phillips are to be honoured for their illustrious stage careers at the Olivier awards in London in April.

Jacobi, who was one of the first actors to appear with Laurence Olivier’s fledgling National Theatre company in the 1960s, is to receive the lifetime achievement award. He has won the best actor Olivier award twice, for his performances in Cyrano de Bergerac in 1983 and Twelfth Night in 2009. The 84-year-old star, whose career has included TV roles in I, Claudius and Last Tango in Halifax, was last on stage in the West End in 2016 as Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet directed by Kenneth Branagh. Jacobi told the Guardian last year: “I’ve got a feeling I won’t be on stage again. It’s not stage fright exactly. But I’m not comfortable like I used to be.”