Stephen Poliakoff

With all the new recent works by Stephen Poliakoff I was reminded of the fact that I met him almost thirty years ago for a possible part in his celebrated production of “Caught On A Train”. I remember a very pleasant meeting/audition with him and then, the next day, he phoned my Agent to say that I was his second choice and if his first choice wasn’t available then the part would be mine! I later found out his first choice was Michael Kitchen (with whom I’d shared a flat while we were students together at RADA) and he played the part beautifully. But what was fascinating was that when Mr Poliakoff was telling me about the play he told me that the lady would be played by Renée Asherson – the fact that it was ultimately actually played by Dame Peggy Ashcroft made me feel a whole lot better about being second choice too!!