If fate dishes out certain journeys for us all, then Ian has been travelling with conviction all his life. Growing up in Bolton, the teenage Ian McKellen immersed himself in the twin activities one associates with great artists: practising his craft in a wide range of amateur and school productions and seizing any opportunities to observe and critique the work of outstanding actors.

His vivid intellect took him to Cambridge but there he devoted huge swathes of potential study time to appearing in over 21 student productions. He emerged from university as a dedicated theatre practitioner.

The qualities that shaped his youth remain as the key factors of his personality. He has an enormous appetite for work. He has an eclectic, open-minded curiosity about new acting challenges. He has a genuine desire to see and support the work of other artists – new or established. (He is famous for his lack of snobbery). And he has a strong sense of loyalty to the values of community, friendship and family that were a feature of his early life.

Ian has been acclaimed as a stage actor since he started and has won numerous awards and citations. He was knighted in 1991 and could have begun to live more sedately. But in his late fifties he decided to build a screen career and set about it with the same clarity and tenacity with which he approached theatre. He now has even more awards to clutter up the mantelpiece.

I got to know Ian, before Hollywood, when he wanted to revisit the principles of an ensemble company and asked if I’d be prepared to create one with him for a 6 month season at the West Yorkshire Playhouse. Some critics were scandalised that Yorkshire could prove such a lure – ever the iconoclast, Ian enjoyed their consternation. The season was fulfilling exhausting and exhilarating. Ian proved a steadfast friend and colleague; he was also a beautiful actor to direct and watch.

Ian is a man of deep personal conscience. He is known as a voice for liberty, defending the rights of all humans to acknowledge their personal sexuality as a gift and a joy and not a matter for guilt or reproach. But less known is his attention to the everyday matters of human courtesy, respect and loyalty.

Ian always shines in a spotlight on stage, screen or socially – but he is a private committed artist who seeks self-improvement in all aspects of his life and work.

Sir Ian McKellen is a blue plaque actor – a theatre and movie star; he has joined the ranks of Henry Irving, John Gielgud, Lawrence Olivier et al. But I know he is also a blue plaque person. That is why I am so happy, Chancellor, to present to you for the degree of Doctor of Letters, honoris causa, Ian Murray McKellen.