CURTAIN CALL

From time to time Jeffrey Davies looks back at some of his favourite interviewees - this week it's actor Michael Cochrane

- WITH JEFFREY DAVIES

MICHAEL Cochrane is the quintessential English actor. Born in Brighton in 1947, he has a radio, stage, TV and film CV of credits thatare most impressive and, undoubtedly, the envy of many a fellow actor. A familiar face on the small screen, he has made a guest appearance in just about every favourite TV drama over the past 50-plus years. Still acting, I caught up with the engaging thespian when he came to Bath's Theatre Royal in English playwright Terence Rattigan's comedy, When the Sun Shines, in 2016...

"This play [When the Sun Shines] is Rattigan's most successful commercial play in his lifetime, running for three years in the West End, but it hasn't been done much since then which is strange," a most friendly Michael Cochrane, who plays The Duke of Ayr and Stirling, told me ahead of the play's arrival at Bath's Theatre Royal.

"It's a lovely piece actually. A farce with heart and a very cleverly constructed drama with Rattigan exaggerating both the comedy and the pathos. Remember this was 1943 and there was some angst; people were anxious and bombs were dropping and it was the usual war-time scenario. In fact this comedy was one of the first to do at a time of war," Michael added matter-of-factly.

In what's described as 'a flurry of crossed wires and mistaken identities' who does the genial actor play?