Moment Towards the End of the Play

The autobiography of a much-loved actor. Timothy West is held in high regard and great affection for his versatility and reliability.

He has played Edward VII and Thomas Beecham, Falstaff and Uncle Vanya, Gorbachev, Stalin and Churchill and he became a household name in the TV series Brass.Now in his sixties, he has written his autobiography.

In it he emerges as a natural writer, a brilliant raconteur and a man deeply concerned about the health of his profession.

His early years, replete with delightful stories, read like a map of a now vanished landscape: box office at Frinton, assistant stage manager at Newquay, weekly rep at Hull, a two-year contract at Salisbury, and meanwhile coping with a small child and a manic depressive wife.And soon the parts get meatier, and the venues better known: he plays in the West End, joins the Royal Shakespeare Company, performs Dickens and Dostoyevsky on television, marries an actress called Prunella Scales.

But as he tells it, it all seems to happen a bit by accident, a bit by surprise.