Michael Frayn

Did he know himself?

Never mentioned it.

And he was the kind of man who could never keep anything to himself.

If he'd thought of it, it would have burst out at once.

And he never said anything about that.

And then finally, about 10 years after the book came out, as we walked back to the office, he said, Michael, I know.

There's something I need to ask you.

Somebody told me that you based a character on me.

I thought, oh, well, I'll just have to throw it out.

And he said, but I saw that play and the character was nothing like me at all.

And you've got the wrong character.

Well, my first play was in fact four short plays and one of them was a farce because I adored farce.

And it wasn't terribly good.

None of the plays were terribly good.

And one night, I can't remember why now, I went and watched it backstage and saw the characters running desperately from one door to another, doing quick changes as they went.

And I thought, this is funnier than what's going on around the front.

And it turned out to be a very easy thought to think, but an extremely difficult thing to do.

And I wrote many, many, many drafts and attempts at it before I had a workable version.

And even then, I didn't think anyone would ever perform it.

Well, when I was at Cambridge, I wrote the Footlights Review, the annual review.