Superb Creativity

BY JOHN HENCHER
I left the theatre in 1958 to become a priest. By 1963 I had become Vicar of a large industrial parish in the West Midlands. I missed the theatre, and especially the company of theatre people, desperately and I became lonely and very unhappy. Somehow Tony Cornish heard of this, I can’t think how, and he invited me to go and see him at the BBC in Birmingham. He was warm, understanding and sympathetic, I very appreciated talking to him, went back to my parish and thought that would be the end of it. To my astonishment he soon offered me a part in a radio play and many others followed in the next few years, including the lovely part of Amos Midwinter in a serialisation of John Buchan’s ‘Midwinter’. I owe him so much; he clearly understood my plight and how to help me. His generosity and kindness and, not least, his superb creativity, got me through a very difficult time and put me back on track. My memories of him are shot through with deep gratitude.