"I was a tall, dark and not very handsome young man by that time. I always thought I was rather plain, in fact[...]The person I thought was handsome when I met him in Manchester was Jeremy Brett. That was a young handsome leading man, a Gentleman Jim type. I never was one of those."
"The actor Jeremy Brett, with whom I have been close friends since our days in repertory in Manchester in the early 1950's, was kind enough to describe me once as "a fairly nice old sweetheart from Bristol", and I daresay that sums it up."
"And their was the unfortunate headline in the same newspaper referring to "The-have-a-cigarette Othello." On the first night, Cassio, played by Jeremy Brett, offered me (Iago) a cigarette that had slipped my mind altogether. I was looking the other way when I heard Jeremy utter the un-Shakespearian invitation to 'have a cigarette." [...] The Othello was a Welsh actor called Brendan Barry who was a little out of his depth in the role[...]When he fell into Othello's epileptic fit, Cassio (Jeremy) forgot to make his entrance, so after my evil imprecations, I just left old Brendan lying there on the stage and went off to the dressing room to find Jeremy."
"Jeremy Brett was the juvenile lead and he quickly became my best friend. We have looked out for eachother ever since those days. Jeremy was gorgeous, simply irresistible. Being a country bumpkin, I had never met anyone so elegant, so charming, so 'Etonian'. He had, of course, been to Eton. And like Tarn, Jeremy's family background was both impeccable and military. I was entranced."
"Jeremy, although I scarcely appreciated it at the time, was having trouble. He was far too young for his leading lady and was about to be sacked. He always says that he was moved and touched when I appeared because I had this vulnerable, slightly stooped appearance, and I was both benign and gentle, which is true. I was also overweight, because the landlady at Preston had fed us all very well."
"Jeremy snuggled up to me and to Tarn. We became inseparable best friends. He was terribly good-looking and always suffered for it. At school he was known as 'the tart of Eton' because he sang like Elizabeth Schwarzkopf, but was giving out all the wrong signals to unsuitable men who kept trying to pick him up. And I was the gentleman's relish who sat between him and the rather heavy old queers in the company. I winkled him out and we bonded-as platonic friends, never sexual partners. We balanced up the classes between us."
"I moved in with Jeremy Brett over the Astoria Ballroom. The lettering used to light up at night[...] Jeremy had two rooms over the last 'A'. [...] There were fights downstairs in the ballroom every weekend. Not between me and Jeremy, who was and remains my dearest friend. Neither of us would go down when these terrible fights were going on, in case we were trampled to death. It wasn't a very glamorous life, but we were always screaming with laughter. We went regularly to the pub, of course and every Friday night we'd treat ourselves to a strong hot curry."
"In June 1955, Jeremy went off to make the King Vidor film of War and Peace, with Audrey Hepburn and Henry Fonda. I found a letter of farewell from the book and gave it to him to read on the plane. He told me how touched he was and very kindly said to Tarn and I that, if we could find our fares in the next three weeks break, he would pay all our expenses. So we went to Rome, a city which I have adored unreservedly from that day to this, and we were billeted in a flat with Robert Graves' daughter, Diana. Jeremy, bless his heart, gave us pocket money from his own salary."