Joss Ackland at Winter Words Festival

Feb 5 2010 Perthshire Advertiser Friday

IT is so appropriate that Joss Ackland should put in an appearance at Pitlochry’s increasingly-renowned Winter Words Festival, now six years old.

He appeared in the theatre’s first-ever season in 1951. So did Rosemary Kirkcaldy.

“As I entered the room I saw this beautiful young girl cross the floor and perch on a window ledge. With one look I fell in love.”

He made his feelings known. Rosemary’s reaction was straight to the point – “I wouldn’t marry you if you were the last man on earth.” Her engagement to someone else at the time was possibly a mitigating factor.

However, playing opposite one another in JM Barrie’s Mary Rose, love blossomed and they married in the August of that year in the town’s Holy Trinity Church.

This began an incredible love story that lasted 51 years until Rosemary’s untimely death in 2002, two years after being diagnosed with motor neurone disease. She had kept a diary since she was 15 until the day she died.

Now published with a commentary by her husband, “My Better Half and Me” was the subject of Joss Ackland’s appearance on the Pitlochry stage.

It was billed as a “conversation with Martyn James”, but Mr James was cunningly disguised as Dougal Lee, who explained that his fellow-Pitlochry thespian had been “sent to Coventry” – to tread the boards.

(For the record, Martyn is appearing at the Belgrade Theatre in The Miser, directed by Hamish Glen, former Dundee Rep director, with Perth’s Andy Gray in the title role).

Much of the first half was devoted, naturally, to the book. But the Q and A session after the interval concentrated more on Mr A’s amazing career encompassing more than 130 films and countless TV appearances. Probably the most memorable part (much to his disgust!!) was as South African Arjen Rudd in Lethal Weapon 2, with his famous line claiming “diplomatic immunity” before being shot in the head by Murtaugh (Danny Glover) – “It’s just been revoked!”

But the real passion of the night was the memory of his remarkable wife. Not only did she bear seven children, but also recovered from paralysing injuries following a house fire which destroyed everything. She defied all the medical experts in learning to walk and talk again only to be struck down with the all-consuming disease that is motor neurone.

But through it all, she always “kept me in order,” said the veteran actor.

He won’t have a birthday this year (he was born on February 29), but if he did, he would be 82. A remarkable career, a remarkable book.

Peter Cargill