Jude Law triumphs as Henry V, QUENTIN LETTS says he's finally grown up 'Magnetic': Jude Law's commanding presence as Henry V reminds the world - particularly a public that may have started to think of him only in gossip terms - that he is a top-class stage actor There have been rave reviews for Jude Law's latest stage role. He opened this week in Shakespeare's Henry V and my fellow drama critics called his title-role performance 'commanding', 'fine', 'rich', even 'supreme'. The adjective I used in my Daily Mail review was 'magnetic'; for this is a king with an invisible power of attraction - and not simply because the 41-year-old Law remains a handsome devil. There is no one scene that defines this Henry. You cannot point to a specific gesture or inflection and say 'that is the moment he clinched it'. The performance is more complete than that. From the moment we see him on his throne, engaged in courtly intrigues, to his Act V exit with his new French bride, declaring 'may our oaths well kept and prosperous be!', Mr Law inhabits Henry's bones. He exudes the necessary kingliness. As dear old Louis Walsh too often says on X Factor, he 'nails it'. On one level we should not be surprised. Jude Law is a hard-working actor who already has more than 40 films to his name, including The Talented Mr Ripley, Cold Mountain and the charming Hugo. He is so industrious that at the 2005 Oscars ceremony, comedian Chris Rock generated sly laughter by asking: 'Who is Jude Law? Why is he in every movie I have seen in the last four years? Even in the movies he's not in, if you look in the credits he made the cupcakes or something.' It's called work, Chris dearie. Film star Law has not ignored the stage. Over the years, he has progressed from the National Youth Music Theatre in the late 1980s to London fringe shows in the early Nineties, making it to the Royal National Theatre's Lyttelton stage in Cocteau's Les Parents Terribles in 1994. Then came Dr Faustus at the Young Vic in 2002 and an accomplished Hamlet at Wyndham's Theatre in 2009. People in 'the business' have never been in much doubt about Mr Law's acting abilities: they know he is a proper actor. But can the same be said of the public, or at least that part of the public which follows the celebrity pages of newspapers and the internet? Did they appreciate that Jude Law was this good at his job? His problem is that he is, let's be frank, sex on legs. Those cheekbones. Those saucer eyes. Women have hurled themselves at him. They pant in his wake. When he walks into a party, they dive at him like those maniacs who leap off the cliffs in Acapulco. And Jude, well, he has sometimes caught them in his arms. Some showbiz pin-ups such as George Clooney may have the ability or inclination to resist the advances of groupies. Law was made of lustier stuff. Talent: Jude Law not yet quite have the instant, electric presence of a Kenneth Branagh, but he deserves to be considered in the premier league alongside such new-era stars as Dominic West, Toby Stephens and David Tennant Thus, over the years he has become one of those thesps known as much for their extra-marital activities as for their acting. With his steel-edged looks and an all-too-obvious difficulty keeping his fly-buttons fastened, public school-educated Law (he attended Alleyn's in Dulwich, South-East London, until he left at 17 to go into acting) appeared in gossip columns more than in the arts pages. It made him famous. It helped to make him rich. It did not make him happy. There was a wildly over-reported marriage bust-up with actress Sadie Frost, mother to three of his children. Their six-year union ended in 2003 with her citing 'unreasonable behaviour' on his part after the police were twice called to rows at the family home. Handsome devil: Despite the receding hairline, Law has matured into one of Britain's most impressive stage talents Before they wed she was a minor actress. Afterwards, thanks to Jude Law, she was instant A-list. A year later he was engaged to the model/waif/would-be thespian Sienna Miller - great legs, not such great dramatic depth. But in 2005 it emerged he had been making whoopee with nanny Daisy Wright, who looked after one of his children. She decided to tell the world about their 'mind-blowing sex' - and Law's hopes of being taken seriously suffered another setback. It seemed as though Mary Poppins herself might not have been safe from a goosing from juicy Jude. Then there was a momentary liaison after an evening in a nightclub five years ago with an American model named Samantha Burke. Nine months later, as prompt as a parcel from Amazon, out popped a little Law baby. Such sagas created the impression that here was a young buck over-freighted with testosterone. For more than a decade around the turn of the millennium, no big party, no Mayfair champagne tree, was complete without a red-carpet visitation by Jude Law and his latest squeeze. He was a mover in the 'Primrose Hill' set, named after the chi-chi part of London where they all lived. Model Kate Moss was a friend (she was at the time stepping out with that sorry specimen Pete Doherty). Actors Rhys Ifans and Ewan McGregor (with whom Mr Law once shared a flat) were in the swim, as were various other London-stage blades. Noel Gallagher occasionally swanned by, as did the blonde Davinia Taylor. She, too, was officially an actress - but more to the point she was a sporty lass with a big front and a dad who made millions in lavatory paper. A loo-rolls heiress! The Primrose Hill set were socialist boho-chic, sleekly slovenly, all somnolent eyes and affected languor while having millions in the bank. It always felt odd that a talented workaholic such as Jude Law should fall in with that sort of crowd. His parents were committed London school teachers. He had inherited their can-do, get-on-with-it work ethic. Was he not better than many of this lot? And yet the bad publicity continued. He had an affair, so the sensation-mongers told us, with a vampy, doped-up neighbour, Pearl Lowe, whose other half was a rock star. There were lubricious tales of wife-swapping. Sadie Frost kept nattering to the Press, and there was a frightening incident when one of their children chewed an ecstasy pill at a kiddies' party in London's Soho. It was a complete accident - the pill had been on the floor after an earlier adult party - but somehow it symbolised a life that seemed to be cartwheeling out of control, a world tainted by excess and shallow gratification. Jude bedded and bonked for England. But there was a price. The paparazzi made his life a misery, while bad apples from certain Fleet Street titles snooped so intrusively that he would later obtain a six-figure legal settlement from Rupert Murdoch's News International. The young and beautiful: (from left) Sean Pertwee, Sadie Frost, Jude Law, Ewan McGregor and Jonny Lee Miller in 2000. Jude shared a flat with McGregor in Primrose Hill Personal life: Law split with his wife of six years, Sadie Frost (left), in 2003. A year later he was engaged to the actress Sienna Miller (right) At first, all the media attention must have been flattering. At first it helped Mr Law's career. It made him big box-office and it helped to secure him plenty of modelling and sponsorship work. It permitted him to involve himself on the charity circuit (among the causes he has helped are Breast Cancer Care and St Stephen's Church in Hampstead). He even nibbled at soft-power politics, taking part in some United Nations International Day of Peace initiative. At the same time, all the publicity helped Sadie Frost, against the odds, maintain a high profile. The limelight that came with Jude Law also helped to establish the long-thighed Miss Miller as a big hippo in that paddling pool of celebrityhood. I have seen Miss Miller on stage once, in As You Like It. She was OK. But she is never going to be a Maggie Smith. Over the years a lot of people have done pretty well out of Jude Law. Now, with his Henry V this week, he has done himself a good turn. Big time. He has reminded the world - particularly a public that may have started to think of him only in gossip terms - that he is a top-class stage actor. It is one thing to be a major star of screen. It is quite another matter - much, much harder - to pull off a great Shakespearean part such as Henry V on the West End stage. The test, perhaps, is this: do theatre-goers look at the actor on stage and think 'ooh look, it's that noted swordsman and celebrity-page-fodder Jude Law', or do they think 'that's Henry Lancaster, King of England, on the eve of Agincourt'? Having seen Mr Law at the Noel Coward theatre this week, I have little doubt they will think the latter. He speaks Shakespeare's verse with ease. He has the onstage liquidity of movement of a Kevin Spacey. He may not yet quite have the instant, electric presence of a Kenneth Branagh, but he deserves to be considered in the premier league alongside such new-era stars as Dominic West, Toby Stephens and David Tennant. Comparison to former Dr Who actor Tennant is perhaps the most instructive. Mr Tennant delivers a more intellectual performance and speaks with all the heritage of a Royal Shakespeare Company graduate. Mr Law is better at simmering. He is stronger in the jaw and shoulder departments, and imposes himself with his physique and stillness. We are lucky to have them both on the British stage at present. You could argue that a complicated love life and a measure of personal torment is essential for an actor. Has all that marital anguish given Jude Law a fuller understanding of human nature? But there is a downside to such shenanigans. The media stereotyping can deter audiences from seeing that actor as a public artist rather than as their personal property. Power: Mr Law's simmering performance as Henry V sees him impose himself with his powerful physique and stillness And the distractions of all that paparazzi hassle can lure the actor away from the hard discipline which is required of theatre work. The late film director Anthony Minghella, who directed him in Cold Mountain, described Jude Law as 'a beautiful boy with the mind of a man'. His performance this week in Henry V showed that although he is still a fine-looking fellow, his looks no longer impede him dramatically. His Henry is a handsome soldier with the mind of a monarch, and a heartening example of an actor who has defeated his demons in the service of the theatre. He may be losing his hair, but he has gained a new pelt of gravitas.