“Between you and me …”

NEWS THAT THE Royal Shakespeare Company had signed a three-year deal to stage shows on cruises prompted a wave of nostalgia regarding my own long-ago theatrical adventures on the high seas.

Such thoughts even briefly stirred romantic notions of submitting one’s extensive résumé in time for the voyages ahead. Harrowing memories, alas, were soon enough to intervene, taking me back to the moment I was informed an inebriated co-star had “fallen” overboard near Norway.

Having been a controversial figure — courtesy of his sozzled nightly performances and allegedly seducing a Yorkshireman’s wife — one could never rule out whether there was more to that troublesome peacock’s mysterious demise than met the eye.