The grotty, handcrafted programme is all we had time to cobble together because Revival! was postponed. In the middle of a characteristic King’s Head panic I suggested a brilliant David Mercer play – written for television! Joan, Dan’s wife and co-founder of the King’s Head, knocked out the programme on a typewriter (as I recall) and we asked the theatre gods for support.

A commentator writing in The Sunday Correspondent said: “…Ben Sumner is a version of Mercer himself – heavily bearded, often drunk, disillusioned, paranoid, prone to violent outbursts.

Riveting stuff, but the play was only 65 minutes long. Joan and Dan and I had to take a chance that the newly-enthused audience would not feel cheated.

I’d directed a short, brilliant comedy by A.R. Gurney called The Problem – running at lunch time. It was also centred on a husband and wife. I suggested adding it to the Vivaldi event. It worked – punters got their money’s worth.

Here’s Irving Wardle’s review of The Problem

Coverage like this, just two years in to the founding of the enterprise must have given the King’s Head a huge boost – surely? And it really couldn’t have happened without Joan – Dan’s wife’s – presence and contribution.

Some of the Let’s Murder Vivaldi reviews