The Critic star Ian McKellen has said it "would be a bit premature" to say that Britain is shifting to the right following recent anti-immigrant riots.
The veteran actor stars alongside Gemma Arterton in The Critic, a period drama set in 1930s' London.
McKellen plays Jimmy Erskine, a larger-than-life theatre critic, infamous for savagely taking down any actor unfortunate enough to disappoint him.
He is particularly harsh with Nina Land (Arterton), a leading lady in the making, who has long admired and respected Erskine.
Erskine has run-ins with British fascists - who were prevalent in the 1930s - but McKellen is keen to back off from making comparisons between the Blackshirts and the current rise in anti-immigrant sentiments in the UK.
"I wouldn't take the rioting in the English regions as being an organised, right-wing party - or movement," he told RTÉ Entertainment during an interview with Arterton about the film.
"It was a demonstration, an expression of frustration... Not too well organised and relatively easily squashed by the authorities.
"I thought that was rather hopeful," he added.
"But we're having to cope with days of instant communication when you can organise a riot pretty quickly,
That's not to say that people who were part of the mob don't have difficult lives that they wish were better.
"And they're trying to find some sort of misplaced solution.
"You've always got to look for the cause of these things, but to say that Britain is shifting to the right, I think, would be a bit premature."
McKellen also spoke about recovering from a recent accident, when he fell off a West End stage during a performance of Player Kings at the Noel Coward Theatre.
"I'm not in pain," he insisted. "I'm just left with a nasty memory, which isn't much fun. I'm fighting fit."
As well as McKellen and Arterton, The Critic also stars Mark Strong, Ben Barnes, Alfred Enoch, Romola Garai and Lesley Manville and is set in 1934.
McKellen's character lives as flamboyantly as he writes: he parties into the night, enjoys risque encounters in the park, and cohabitates with his much younger 'secretary' Tom (Alfred Enoch).
But when his newspaper’s proprietor dies and his son (Strong) takes over, Jimmy is told to tone it down, to avoid flouting the paper’s new family values.
With his job security threatened, he hatches a devious plan, setting off a chain of events that result in terrible consequences.
The Critic is in cinemas on Friday 13 September.
