Former CFT boss remembered as a “good man in a difficult industry”

Matthew Gale, himself a theatre producer, said his father, who has died, was a man who knew neither racism nor bigotry; a man who always encouraged others and genuinely relished their successes.

John was the CFT’s seventh director from 1983-1989. Among his many achievements at the CFT was the creation of the Minerva Theatre. As a London impresario John produced more than 100 productions, both in the UK and abroad. Among his West End successes were: Boeing-Boeing (five year West End run); The Secretary Bird (four year WE run); and No Sex Please, We’re British, the longest-running comedy in theatre history (17 years).

His funeral will be held at All Saint’s Church, East Dean at 2pm on Friday, May 30.

John was born on August 2 1929 to Frank and Martha Gale and married Lisel Wratten in 1950. He was the father to Tim and Matthew and grandfather to Joseph, Alexander, Eleanor and Siena.

Matthew said: “One of the great privileges of being brought up in a liberal arts house by my parents was that I didn't understand bigotry. I'm like Tracy Turnblad in Hairspray! I didn't understand racism and I didn't understand homophobia. When my parents had parties there was always a huge mixture of people and you would see men holding hands which was very unusual at the time. My parents had a great deal of kindness and my father was always very, very caring.

“My first experience of going to the theatre was on the last night of Boeing-Boeing in 1965. I was six and I remember my mother laughing very loudly and going ‘Bravo!’ and I said ‘What's going on?’ And she said ‘I’m representing your father because this is what he would want.”

Matthew also remembers his father as a great spotter of talent: “from the word go he was a great encourager of people.”

And always for all the right reasons: “I remember he said to me on more than one occasion, being a producer like he was, that you should not expect people to thank you when you help them or when you go the extra mile for them. My father always said ‘Enjoy it when they do thank you but don't expect it.’ I sort of suggested that I think people should thank you but he said that should not be your reason for helping people. ‘Your motive for helping people should always be because you want to help people,’ he said. He was always very altruistic.

“The thing about my father is that he could be loud and he could be quite sharp as well as loud but it was because he would always give his opinion and I think that is a good thing. I follow that now. It means that everybody knows where they stand with you just as they knew where they stood with him. But underneath that loudness and sometimes very precise instructions – because he knew what he wanted – you knew that he was always looking for an opportunity to allow people to shine. His greatest pleasure was seeing the people that he had helped... but not because he had helped them. He took great pleasure when Sam Mendes won an Oscar. He saw that here was a major talent. He never once thought that without him he wouldn't have made it. He always believed that talent would come out.

“We watched cricket quite a lot, and often the Indian team would play a number of young players. My father said that that was a bit like the theatre. If people are talented enough then they're old enough to play. Giving people opportunities in their early 20s was absolutely right if they had the talent.”

John was also hugely supportive of Matthew’s work: “He loved finding out how our shows had done. Obviously the world changed in the way that we sold tickets over the internet. In my father's day if you had a West End show that was going to be a great hit you would know because if you went to the theatre there would be queues around the block because you actually had to go to the theatre to buy the tickets. My father couldn't understand just how much money could be spent over the internet in a day.

“But the point was that the fundamentals had not changed. And he completely understood those fundamentals, that you had to entertain people and make them laugh or make them cry. And that hasn't changed. And that is instinct. Obviously nobody gets it right all the time but my father had massive hits – enormous, enormous hits like you just not could possibly have now.”

But John came to Chichester at a good time when the world was changing: “That's not the reason he came to Chichester but he could certainly see that things were different. The light comedies and the farces with which he had had big hits were beginning to be less commercial – in a way because the sitcoms on TV were taking over. He saw that with the shows that were starting not to do so well commercially in the West End. The writing was on the wall. He came to Chichester to help his friend Patrick Garland at the Festival Theatre and then he stayed and he loved it here. But the fact is that those kinds of light comedies don't exist now in the West End. It's very difficult to produce comedies in the West End now.

“But I think at end of the day the one thing I will say about my father is that he was a good man. If you wanted a word to sum him up, that was it. He was a good man in a difficult industry.”