We have recently heard of the death of Michael Mills last May. Michael had come to the Garden City when he changed his career to become a solicitor and set up his practice here. Previously he’d been with the Labour Party at Transport House after graduating from the LSE. Later his Doctorate thesis was entitled The Development of Parliamentary Opposition.

Michael was active at the Barn at the end of the last century in a number of productions. He first played in The Winter’s Tale in the 1978-79 season and then after a break resumed in a lighter mode in Run for your Wife in January 1994. He followed up with The Wolf, Pride and Prejudice, Quartermaine’s Terms and Henceforward – a mix of drama and comedy, and finally Out of Order, the Ray Cooney classic about an MP who commits an ‘indiscretion’, for which Michael’s inside knowledge of Parliament added to the fun.

In later life, Michael and Jennifer travelled widely. The last time I saw Michael was when, on holiday, I bumped into them in a coffee bar in Gdynia, Poland.

He was a gentle, thoughtful and dignified character, of whom it was said ‘he was not afraid to express the unpopular view with dignity and fairness’.

At the Barn, he was enormously good company. We send our condolences to Jennifer and his family and friends.