FIFTY years ago, Shakespearean actor Donald Wolfit was the leading man in a play at Malvern Festival Theatre. He was appearing in The Clandestine Marriage with the Old Vic.

Mr Wolfit had been appointed to the leadership of the Old Vic in July, but things were clearly not well between him and the company. For while the play was still on in Malvern, he announced he was resigning after the production was over and, furthermore, his wife, the actress Rosalind Iden, who was also in the play, was leaving with him.