Thank you for heading up dear Derek’s death at a time when strangely communication gets difficult. I ran a theatre agency for children .Very small but he auditioned those I submitted on an equal basis with the big ones. He was so clever, would get someone to take the details of the auditionees while he would wander amongst them assessing their suitability. If offered a photo, he would hold it in his hand looking at it rather like dealers do with antiques and give the go ahead. He WANTED to give actors a chance. I’m sure that Joanna Lumley was grateful having just worked at Dundee Rep later found herself in a very interesting role on BBC schools TV programme1 He loved being surprised by talent, i took him to se ‘Billy Elliot’ quite early into the show he said ‘I didint expect to like this’, Later on ‘That boy must give up ballet’ -Liam Mower didnt!
When we saw ‘The Jungle’ again. ‘I didnt think I’d like this’ and when we returned from the interval. He and one of the actors just went into an glorious embrace.. it was with Ben Turner who was brilliantly acting as an Afgan refugee.
Sincerely I think you Mr/Ms anonymous for setting up this communication process and hope you will let is know if we can honour such an insightful man.
