Letter: Rik Mayall's courage in Cell Mates

I acted with Rik Mayall just once, in 1995, in the ill-fated production of Simon Gray's Cell Mates, directed by Simon himself. After Stephen Fry went Awol, we were all shattered, but no one more than Rik, because the play was virtually a two-hander, with the other three actors, of whom I was one, playing small parts to help tell the story of George Blake and Sean Bourke.

Only the actors and Rik's agent, Aude Powell, who came for several nights to support Rik backstage, saw how much Rik suffered. He came offstage every night in floods of tears and it is a great tribute to his courage that he never gave up. I have seen this described as "professionalism", which of course it was, but it was much more than that. It was pure guts. From Rik, it was an astonishing display of courage, loyalty and dignity and Simon quite rightly paid tribute to him in his book about the production, Fat Chance, by dedicating it "For Rik".