YOU WOULD MAKE A GOOD ACTOR

By Len A.Hynds

Whilst on the Flying Squad at Scotland Yard, and as it was getting near lunch time one day, my Detective Inspector Frank Williams , sitting beside me as I drove through the City of London, said that he would take me to a very exclusive eating club, where he was a member, and treat me to lunch. Frank became famous through his close investigation of the Great Train Robbery., with our Superintendent Tommy Butler, two great detectives to work for.

We went to this very exclusive club, where all the meals were ‘olde English’ and we all sat at a long oak table, sitting on long wooden benches.

Next to Frank was a director or producer of the film industry, whom Frank knew, and he had brought two guests from America who sat opposite me. We were introduced as Flying Squad Officers, and one of the American gents said excitedly, “We watch the Sweeney on TV in America.” Then followed lots and lots of questions, until I think Frank got fed up with all this shop talk, and got immersed with his producer friend, leaving me to entertain the Americans.

After a few stories, of which it was safe to talk about, one of the American gents said, “Have you ever thought of the entertainment business?” I laughed and said that an actor’s life was far too precarious for me. The other said, “You tell a good story, haven’t you ever thought about becoming an actor.” I laughed at the very suggestion of such an idea.

Before they left we shook hands, and one left me his card, and told me that they had bought the rights to a book by an English Author, and they had come to Britain to seek out an unknown actor to take the leading part in a film they were planning. I read in the newspaper about a month later that a Mr Saltzmann and a Mr Brocolli from America, had chosen a Sean Connery for a film they were making about a British spy called James Bond. When I looked at their picture in the newspaper I realised that it was the two gents who had sat opposite me!