Sir Patrick Stewart on Robin Phillips: ‘He was the star of our year at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School’

I first met Robin Phillips in September 1957 when we both arrived for the orientation day at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. The average age must have been 20, but I was only just 17. The train journey from Huddersfield to Bristol was, at that time, the longest I had ever taken.

Everyone in some degree was nervous, except for the very young, very tall, VERY gorgeous looking man who introduced himself as Robin. I had never met a “Robin” before. It was not a name one encountered much in the Yorkshire West Riding in the 1950s. He was at ease, chatty, funny, almost as if he was surrounded by old friends, instead of frightened, intimidated, insecure teenagers.