Michael Frayn

And every year we did the Footlights Review in Cambridge for a month, I think.

And then it was done for a few weeks in the West End.

And we were all very ambitious and there was a good chance that your plays or your sketches, your writing or your performances were seen by professional agents and producers.

The Footlights that I wrote was the first one that didn't go to the West End.

It didn't go to the West End because it wasn't very funny.

I'm afraid like the fox and the grapes in The Legend, I...

turned against the theatre and decided that theatre was ridiculous and was just full of people who were going to forget their lines or drop their props and be embarrassing one way or another.

Because I'd been personally slighted.

I'm afraid it was a shameful reaction.

Yes, well, the theatre was a bit of an experiment to see whether you could do a farce for the page because one of the things that makes farce possible in the theatre is that you have an audience, a live audience.

And if you can get them laughing, they set each other off.

Hard to get them laughing in the first place.

But it has been scientifically demonstrated that most powerful people

Trigger for laughter is the sound of somebody else laughing.

It's contagious.

It's not someone's trousers falling down or mother-in-law joke.

It's the sound of somebody else laughing.

So if you can get the audience laughing, then they set each other off.

But it's hard on the stage.

I can't remember who the actor was on his deathbed who said, ''Dying is hard, but not as hard as fast.''