Although I only had a fairly recent acquaintance with Brian, since 2006, when he played the Colonel in Journey's End, he was just the sort of bubbly, bouncy character who makes any participation in a play worthwhile. He was an army veteran, a dedicated motorbike rider, and an enthusiastic amateur theatre player, both on the dramatic and the musical stage.
We shared some scenes for the first time in the film Witchfinder, where Brian was the Revd. John Eades of Lawford and I was John Stearne. For most of the shooting he was rigged up with a radio microphone for his sermons, which picked up every single inflection, including a hilarious series of outtakes for one particular scene entering an inn/restaurant, which brought the house down on premiere night.
We learned he had terminal cancer earlier this year, but when I saw him again at a Journey's End cast reunion in May, he still remained as bouncy and engaging as ever.
I'm reminded now of a scene in last year's Headgate Theatre production of King Lear, where I played Kent and Brian was the Fool - very much in the style of Max Miller. Andrew Hodgson came up with the idea of having the Fool die in the hovel rather than just disappear from the story as he traditionally does at this point. At the moment when Lear (David Knight) realises his old friend is gone, I had to wrench David away, with similar feelings of loss myself. I find it similarly hard to have lost Brian now.
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