Sitting here tonight thinking of my dear friend Tom Hodgkins, an actor I met thirty-five years ago at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School who very sadly died last year, aged fifty-nine. Tom performed in the Birmingham Stage Company’s first ever show, Terence Rattigan's While The Sun Shines in 1992 at The Old Rep and again in Oren’s Lavie’s Lighting The Day at the Actor’s Centre in London. He was in every sense a gentle giant, a huge and loveable bear of a man and one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. Tom was my knight in shining during a difficult patch, taking me for a trip in his pride and joy sailing boat off the south coast, which gave me such a lift. Tom battled through a lot in his own life but remained sanguine, even when he broke the news to me of his illness. It was an enormous privilege to know him and he will be hugely missed by everyone who was lucky enough to have him in their lives.