Oh no.
I worked with him on Into the Woods at the Phoenix in London.
2 stories:
He played the narrator in the show and at the start of the second Act he's killed by the giant dropping him from a great height. On the first preview night, I was standing beside Nicholas when the dummy representing him hit the stage. Somewhat to our surprise, the audience cheered. I glanced across and Nicholas was distraught and I saw he was quite hurt at the reaction.
A few weeks later we were recording the cast album in a studio at Wembley and Nicholas and I were sat on a couch watching the telly. It was the morning after the first air raids of Gulf War I and the first news reports were breaking. It was shocking and quite scary at the time but I was still surprised to see Nicholas was crying as he watched.
He told me why.
In 1940 he was an apprentice on the Glasgow shipyards. When Dunkirk happened, it looked like the country was about to be invaded so he hitch-hiked to London to be with his mum. Forget all you've heard about the British stiff upper lip, he said there was panic everywhere and you couldn't get near the trains for crowds and armed guards. When he got to London, he and his mum decided they had to get out of the country so they hitch-hiked to Liverpool to get on a ship bound for ... well, anywhere but they hoped for Canada or Australia. There were so many people with the same idea that it was difficult to get lifts so they walked most of the way.
The sight that greeted them in Liverpool came to haunt him. Tens of thousands mobbed the docks, desperate to get onto the stream of ships they could see leaving. Belongings were abandoned and trampled as the crowd pushed onto the quays where police and soldiers, all armed, tried to bring order. To his shock, they opened fire either into or over the crowd, he didn't know. He saw them firing then the screams and suddenly the crowd turned and started pushing & shoving to get away.
They closed the docks shortly after so he and his mum walked home to London.
He told me all this with the tears streaming down his face as the news on tv gleefully showed the explosions and AA fire in Baghdad. It was the Blitz all over for him.
RIP Nicholas
. Blimey. Respect & RIP to a true gent.
