h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I actually had the pleasure of working with Nicholas Parsons in "Into the Woods" at the Phoenix Theatre in London, 1991/2. He was the consummate professional, if a little sensitive.

In the show, he played the narrator. In Act II, the narrator is captured by the giant and killed. A dummy was rigged to fall from the flies. On the opening night, I happened to be standing beside him when the dummy was dropped. As it hit the floor, the audience erupted in cheers. I glanced up at Nicholas and he was visibly crushed. He walked offstage and didn't come out for the curtain call that night.

We were recording the soundtrack at a studio in Wembley. This was just as Gulf War I started. I was watching the developing news on a couch with Nicholas. I suddenly realised he was crying. I got him a hanky and a cup of tea and he told me why. During WWII he worked in the Clyde Shipyards. Just after Dunkirk, he tried to find his mother in London because his family planned to go to Canada. "Forget all the "stiff upper lip" nonsense", he told me. "Everybody was sh!t scared. We were going to go to Liverpool to try and get on a ship, but there were troops on the docks shooting into the crowds. It was chaos. Don't believe what they tell you. We all thought we were about to die".

Watching the air raids over Baghdad brought it all back for him and all he could do was cry.