According to his obituary in The Times, as a performer, "He had an easy manner and a quick period sense in parts between Shakespeare and light comedy, revue and pantomime.

Hickman directed many of the biggest stars of the London stage such as Evelyn Laye, Anton Walbrook, George Formby, Margaret Lockwood, Sybil Thorndike, Robertson Hare, Beryl Reid, Ralph Lynne and many others.

Hickman left Chigwell School at the age of sixteen and spent two years studying drama at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London.

He says of his teachers at RADA, " If Norman Page taught me to think for myself and Helen Hayes how to behave in a Drawing-room, then Claude Rains showed me how to enjoy being an actor.

He pursued an acting career for almost two decades before achieving his ambition to become a director, firstly in 1939 with the Wilson Barrett company at the Empire Theatre, Edinburgh and then in 1940 with The Peaceful Inn in London's West End.

Hickman wrote, " The Floral Hall in Llandudno gave us a home on our way to Edinburgh - where sirens wailed and windows were blacked and we went on doing a different play every week.

"[3][5] During the run of the revue Sweet and Low (1943) Emile Littler, the producer of the show, offered Hickman a contract to direct any production of his but with the freedom to work for other managements in between.

Hickman wrote, " The show was ahead of its time and although the general public may not have been ready to accept its high-camp, it managed to fill both the Strand and Cambridge theatres for nearly a year and was a signpost to musicals of the future.