I was stage manager to David Collings (obituary, 18 April) on five international tours with Cheek by Jowl. Whoever had the official titles, he was our commanding officer. A great actor, unflappable, a total pro and never a man to take a crisis seriously. Win, lose or draw, there was always a vodka and tonic, a cracking meal and lots of laughs. I don’t suppose I will ever work with anybody like him again.
His memory will live on with everyone who had the privilege of knowing him, a man who could be anywhere from Vladivostok to Tierra del Fuego and have worked out within five minutes where the best bar and restaurant were, and already be best mates with the proprietors and have charmed their wives.
Dougie Wilson
My abiding memory of David Collings is of him talking to a theatre full of schoolchildren, of whom I was one, at the Playhouse, Liverpool in the early 1960s. He spoke of life as a young actor and I was mesmerised. Not long afterwards he played Raskolnikov in the TV adaptation of Crime and Punishment and, to this starstruck teenager, I was thrilled that I had actually seen him in person.
In Stratford, some 40 years later I was able to speak to him at the stage door and tell him that I had been an ardent fan since Liverpool in the 60s. He was very gracious.
Jennifer Henley
