Terence Rattigan previously been appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE), in June 1958. He moved back to Britain, where he experienced a minor revival in his reputation before his death. Rattigan died in Hamilton, Bermuda, from bone cancer in 1977, aged 66. His cremated remains were deposited in the family vault at Kensal Green Cemetery. There was a revival of "The Deep Blue Sea" in 1993, at the Almeida Theatre, London, directed by Karel Reisz and starring Penelope Wilton. A string of successful revivals followed, including "The Winslow Boy" at the Chichester Festival Theatre in 2001 (with David
Terence Rattigan old fashioned and "pre-war" after the overnight success in 1956 of John Osborne's "Look Back in Anger" began the era of kitchen sink dramas by the writers known as the Angry Young Men. Rattigan responded to this critical disfavour with some bitterness. His plays "Ross", "Man and Boy", "In Praise of Love", and "Cause Célèbre", however show no sign of any decline in his talent. Rattigan explained that he wrote his plays to please a symbolic playgoer, "Aunt Edna", someone from the well-off middle-class who had conventional tastes; his critics frequently used this character as the basis for belittling him.