“I love politics,” he once said. “I do love committees, I do love getting things done.”
His detractors saw him as a schemer and a manipulator, but there was little doubt about his talent as a director. He always preferred to act as an interpreter of playwright’s work, rather than imposing his own concept.
The playwright Harold Pinter, many of whose works Sir Peter directed, was clear about his abilities. “I’ve seen productions of my work in various places that have really distorted the whole thing,” he said.
“Peter never allows this. He doesn’t impose, he discovers.”
