Simon Brett - Situation Tragedy

There was no separate obituary for Barton Rivers. Neither his reputation as an actor nor as a writer justified it.

Charles Paris tried ringing his wife Frances on and off for about three days and, when he still didn’t get any reply, he rang their daughter Juliet at her home in Pangbourne.

‘No, Mummy’s not there at the moment.’

‘Where is she?’

‘It’s school holidays. She’s away.’

‘Where?’

‘Naxos.’

‘That’s Greece, isn’t it?’

‘One of the islands, yes.’

‘Do you happen to know if she went on her own or. .’

‘She went with a friend.’

‘You don’t know who?’

‘No.’

‘Oh.’

‘She’ll be back in about ten days.’

‘Ah. I’ll ring her then. How are things with you?’

‘Oh fine. Hectic with the twins.’

‘I’m sure.’

‘Still, they start play school in September. And I’m going back to work. Just mornings.’

‘Ah.’

‘Miles and I would love to see you if you’re free. Give us a buzz if you’re about.’

‘Yes, I will.’

‘I must dash. Damian’s pulling Julian’s hair. ’Bye.’

‘Goodbye.’

West End Television Ltd.

W.E.T. House,

235-9 Lisson Avenue, London NW1 3PQ.

29th October 1979.

Dear Charles,

Now that the strike’s over and life here is getting back to normal, I wanted to drop you a note to thank you for all your hard work over the series of The Strutters .

Obviously, with Dob’s tragic death, there is no possibility of the series being completed. Recasting such a major role is out of the question. Still, you should by now, I hope, have received your outstanding contractual payments.

Plans here are still rather fluid, so the future of the programmes in the series that were completed is uncertain. There’s still a bit of editing and sound-dubbing to do on them, and since the demand on those facilities here is pretty heavy at the moment, it’ll be some time before they’re ready to be transmitted. But the ‘powers that be’ have spoken of the possibility of putting the seven completed programmes out as a mini-series in the Spring or Summer. We’ll have to see.

Now that we don’t have The Strutters there’s a possibility that we may do another series of What’ll The Neighbours Say ? at some point. Obviously, without Dob, it’ll have to be rather different and so I can’t really say whether your character would be likely to recur or not. Anyway, it’s a long way in the future and will depend when Bernard Walton’s free. He’s currently in Australia doing a tax year (and, incidentally, remaking a What’ll The Neighbours Say series out there with an Australian supporting cast!).

I haven’t heard much from the Strutters crowd, though I did see George Birkitt with his wife at a premiere the other week. Oh, and also I have to pass on the bad news that Willy and Sam Tennison have split up. I’ve just had a very exciting new script from Willy, provisionally titled Marriage on the Rocks .

Once again, many thanks for all you did to make The Strutters what it was. I look forward to working with you again on some other project.

With the warmest good wishes,

Yours sincerely,

Peter

Peter Lipscombe

Producer The Strutters