Daniel Radcliffe is to star in the 50th anniversary production of Sir Tom Stoppard’s critically acclaimed play, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, at London’s Old Vic, half a century after the production originally premiered at the theatre.

Directed by David Leveaux,  the tragi-comedy revolves around Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two minor characters in Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

Sir Tom, who was born in Czechoslovakia shortly before the Nazi occupation of the country, fled to England as a Jewish refugee with his parents before beginning his career in the theatre in the 1950s.

Mr Radcliffe, whose mother, casting director Marcia Gresham, is Jewish, was the child star of the Harry Potter film series for more than a decade.

Since leaving that role he has starred in successful stage productions in London and on Broadway, including Sir Peter Shaffer’s Equus and Frank Loesser’s How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern opens next month.