Terence Rattigan was a friend of Spike Milligan's junior officer, Lieutenant Tony Goldsmith, who was killed in the Battle of Longstop Hill, whilst on observation post duty. Rattigan wrote an obituary of his friend and sent it to "The Times". A copy of it is in ""Rommel?" "Gunner Who?"", one of Milligan's war memoirs. After the war, Rattigan alternated between comedies and dramas, establishing himself as a major playwright: the most famous of which were "The Winslow Boy" (1946), "The Browning Version" (1948), "The Deep Blue Sea" (1952), and "Separate Tables" (1954). He believed in understated emotions and craftsmanship, which was deemed
Terence Rattigan of the Second World War scuppered any chances of a long run. Shortly before the war, Rattigan had written (together with Anthony Goldsmith) a satire about Nazi Germany, "Follow My Leader"; the Lord Chamberlain refused to license it on grounds of offence to a foreign country, but it was performed from January 1940. During the war, Rattigan served in the Royal Air Force as a tail gunner; his experiences helped inspire "Flare Path" and he was released from the service to help rewrite it as a film screenplay (which eventually appeared as "The Way to the Stars" in 1945). He