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He was the first black actor to star as Othello at the National Theatre and he went on to play Nelson Mandela.

Now David Harewood is preparing for his next big challenge – becoming the greatest all-rounder in the history of the United States.

Back in the days when he was a pupil at St Benedict’s Junior School in Small Heath and on his way to Washwood Heath Comprehensive School, lorry driver’s son David would have just turned 10 when Paul Leroy Robeson died at the age of 77 on January 23, 1976.

Naturally, the young Harewood had never heard of him.

But things are very different now.

On the back of the Leonardo DiCaprio film Blood Diamond and starring in the hit US series Homeland, David is now a star himself.

And, at 47 he is ripe to play a former American football player who studied at law school and also became a singer and an acting star of stage and screen.

A renowned political activist, to boot, Robeson’s criticism of the US government led him to being blacklisted during McCarthyism.