[5] Robert Gillespie entered the theatrical profession at a time when every playscript had to be approved by the Lord Chamberlain's Office, or risk prosecution.

The only platform for plays addressing controversial subjects like homosexuality, or contentious political topics, existed at club theatres like the New Lindsey, in Notting Hill, with a private membership.

70 years later Gillespie relished playing a repellent, paedophile priest opposite Sean Bean in an episode of Broken by Jimmy McGovern – at which no-one turned a hair.

Devine dared to present the transforming play Look Back in Anger by John Osborne and brought Berthold Brecht into mainstream drama.

A cherished stage engagement was his appearance as Charlie in Mincemeat, with Cardboard Citizens, a company based on homeless actors founded by Adrian Jackson MBE.

He recalls his two and a half years with the Royal Shakespeare Company as "actor paradise" (1994–6) writing of the huge advance in general standard of performance, quality of backstage support and generosity of respect and care shown to the individual artist – in notable contrast to the hierarchical regime in place at The Old Vic, forty years before, when deference to one's "superiors" was still firmly expected.

At the RSC, Tony Britton was very fine as Sir Toby Belch in Ian Judge's production of Twelfth Night and Desmond Barrit an excellent Malvolio – showing great professional curiosity as to how Michael Hordern had addressed the part.

[10] Gillespie appeared in many British sitcoms, including Hugh and I Spy, The Good Life, Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads, Robin's Nest, George and Mildred (2 episodes, one as Detective Sergeant Burke and one as Mr Richardson (a vet)), Rising Damp, The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, Porridge, Dad's Army (in which he played Charles Boyer playing Napoleon Bonaparte), Butterflies, The Liver Birds, Beggar My Neighbour, Only When I Laugh (series one, “Let Them Eat Cake”), Agony, Terry and June and It Ain't Half Hot Mum.

Film appearances include the Pride segment of The Magnificent Seven Deadly Sins (1971), The National Health (1973), Barry McKenzie Holds His Own (1974), Force Ten From Navarone (1978), The Thirty Nine Steps (1978), and the 1996 Royal Shakespeare Company production of A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Gillespie has published two linked books charting the enormous changes undergone within the performing arts over three-quarters of a century, written from the point of view of a practising tradesman - Are You Going to do That Little Jump[13] (pub.

The two volumes, which provide a personal reminiscence of living theatre history, are supported by unique photographs, illustrations, and letters unavailable in other archives.

Gillespie has directed many plays for the stage, including seventeen productions at the King's Head Theatre in Islington between the 1970s and mid-1980s, starting with The Love Songs of Martha Canary which starred Heather Sears.

Tom Conti, Jack Shepherd, John Hurt, Tony Doyle, Nichola McAuliffe and Steve Harley starred in Gillespie's shows there.

[15] Productions have included David Mamet's Oleanna, Jeremy Kingston's Making Dickie Happy, Deborah Cook's Sex, Death and a Baked Swan and Eugene Scribe's Golden Opportunities, translated by former Times Arts Editor Anthony Curtis, which received its UK premiere at the Warehouse Theatre in Croydon in September 2006.