Mr Good Life played a dark role in Ditchling

The actor’s connection with the theatre group was discovered by chance when Player Mary Rabjohns spotted him outside the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in Guildford where he was appearing in another famous comedy, ‘Bedroom Farce’ by Alan Ayckbourn.

Mary began chatting to him and discovered that he had once appeared on stage in Ditchling in the 1950s.

The production in the old village hall was Othello and Richard, who was a student at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) at the time, played the scheming Iago.

Mary and her fellow Players thought the Ditchling connection was an opportunity not to be missed.

Her friend, Sonia Stock, a professional actress who was married to fellow television and stage actor Nigel Stock, recalled: “I spoke to Richard Briers on the telephone asking if he would like to become a patron and he said yes, although he was very busy with his many television and theatre commitments.

“Although he is remembered for The Good Life he was a very good classical actor as well.”

Former Ditchling Player Belinda Brittain met Richard Briers on several occasions and saw him on the London stage. “I admired him most when he played Malvolio in Twelfth Night in his yellow stockings,” she recalled.

“My cousin George Pensotti was a student at RADA with Richard Briers who was a very nice person indeed. Nobody could dislike him. He wasn’t a close friend but I met him and kept up with him.”

George Pensotti played Othello to Richard’s Iago in the production in Ditchling more than 50 years ago and, according to the brochure, Richard had a busy time also arranging the sound effects!

His early experience in one of Shakespeare’s iconic roles stood him in good stead.

In later life he was awarded a CBE and joined Kenneth Branagh’s Renaissance Theatre Company where he took on a number of stage roles and appeared in Branagh’s films of Henry V and Much Ado About Nothing.