In 1959, James Ellis resigned from the management of the Ulster Group theatre because of its refusal to put on Sam Thompson's play Over the Bridge. Jimmy mounted an independent production that aired the unforgiving problem of sectarianism and had the satisfaction of seeing it toured in Britain.
I did not get to know Jimmy until 2003, when he took the lead role in my play Kings of the Road and we shared a flat for a month during the Edinburgh festival. In one sense I believe that he was one of the lucky ones. He had the sense to escape. He was too intelligent, too independent and too gifted to have fitted in with the insularity of Northern Ireland. Instead, Jimmy took his skills as a writer, director, actor and translator across the water.