My friend Richard Wortley, who has died aged 89, specialised in directing radio plays that were, in his words, “cutting-edge political or comedial”. Indeed the playwrights he commissioned – including Howard Barker, Howard Brenton, David Hare and Nick Dear – were often deliberate disturbers of listeners’ peace. But he ranged widely, directing plays by Alan Bennett, Wole Soyinka and Caryl Phillips.
In the early 1980s Richard commissioned me to make a radio adaptation of my stage play The British Empire, Part One. He deftly marshalled a huge cast and a rich variety of sound effects, but not content with such a large canvas, he then insisted that I write Parts Two and Three.
