LETTER: Great minds...

From Mr Simon Callow

Sir: David Glass ("A bit of a Glass act", 21 February) believes that the RSC and I pinched his idea for doing Les Enfants du Paradis.

The idea came to me quite otherwise; I didn't even know that Glass and Mike Alfreds had done a version, until we discovered that they still held the rights. Perhaps I should have known, but I didn't.

It was during a chat with the distinguished director Frank Hauser, who was planning a musical on the same subject, that I had my inspiration that the screenplay would make a wonderful straight play. So, if David Glass feels bitter, as the interview suggests, it is not I towards whom he should be feeling it.

Yours sincerely,

Simon Callow

London, NW1