 In the early 1970s he appeared in several plays with Bernard Miles at the Mermaid Theatre, notably as the Inquisitor in St Joan.In 1973, while appearing as Polonius in Hamlet, he suffered a stroke which affected his speech and ended his career.He married, first, Jane Ann Sterndale Bennett, a granddaughter of the composer William Sterndale Bennett.They had two daughters, Caroline and Elizabeth.