He had a keen interest in theatre and music from his teens onwards, and was offered a place in Leslie Crowther's Repertory Company aged 16, which he was unable to take up.
Whilst working as an Environmental Health Officer in the Mayall & Railton Roads Housing Action Area of Brixton he became Chair of Lambeth NALGO.
[3] When the Conservative MP Robert Taylor died, who had represented Croydon North-West since 1970, Pitt was quickly chosen as the prospective Liberal candidate for the following by-election.
During the campaign, posters summed up the relationship between the two parties as "The Alliance" and the term stuck as the official name thereafter,[5] although it had originally been intended as a stopgap slogan.
[6] Pitt himself claimed that his victory showed that the Alliance had "caught the imagination of the voters" and that as consequence there were "no longer any safe seats for Tory or Labour in the country.
"[6] He served in the House of Commons as Liberal Home Affairs Spokesman and led for the Alliance throughout the first Police and Criminal Evidence Bill, which fell when Margaret Thatcher called a general election.
Taking a break from campaigning, Bill took a degree in Classics and Philosophy at Polytechnic of North London, graduating with a BA in 1987, achieving his long-held wish.
Like many of his generation and class from South London, his education was generally poor, and he left school at 16 with one O Level in spite of his clear intelligence.
Pitt loved radio and the opportunities it gave him to interview politicians, alongside local and international artists (including Grayson Perry, a favourite) as well as highlighting community activity.