Michael had started with Shakespeare. That was before Julia knew him. He had played Romeo at Cambridge, and when he came down after a year at a dramatic school, Benson had engaged him. Michael toured the country and played a great variety of parts. But he realized that Shakespeare would get him nowhere and that if he wanted to become a leading actor he must gain experience in modern plays.
A man called James Langton was running a repertory theatre at Middlepool that was attracting a good deal of attention, and after Michael had been with Benson for three years, when the company was going to Middlepool on its annual tour, he wrote to Langton and asked him whether he would see him.