Yesterday I heard news that sadly another address book entry will have to be deleted.

My friend Julia Richards died a few weeks ago from cancer. We had dwindled into being "Christmas card friends" so I had no idea she was ill.

I knew Julia for 21 years. In September 1986 Barbara Cook did a month-long residency at the Albery Theatre in St. Martins Lane which I went to a few times and I kept bumping into Julia at the stage door. We got chatting and discovered a mutual love of theatre and theatre-going.

Julia was a very easy person to get on with, genuinely outgoing and friendly with a quick wit and a mind that luckily dealt in the most outlandish double entenders. She was an usher at the National Theatre and the job suited her to a tee, helpful and friendly to the punters and in her element in the green room bar with the actors and staff.

When I first met her she was living with her parents who she was remarkably close to, she then moved to a small house near the Olympia where many an evening was spent roaring with laughter over the silliest thing.

There was a fiancee in her past who had allegedly died suddenly and I don't believe she ever had a serious relationship after that - she seemed to subsume it into the wild crushes she would develop for actors such as George Hearn, Philip Quast and Jeremy Northam. How ironic that Quast this Christmas will be appearing in LA CAGE AUX FOLLES, the very show she used to watch Hearn in. If Julia had a fault it was that this obsessive nature could trip over into friendships as well and could be a bit too full-on.

Julia pursued a career in acting and singing for a while. I saw her in a profit-share production of Ionesco's EXIT THE KING in the basement of the old Lesbian and Gay Centre in Farringdon on a Sunday evening in front of an audience of about 15 which was as ghastly as it sounds.

Julia played Juliette the tart and acerbic maid which was no stretch for her. Luckily any post-show worries about how to greet her were allayed by her walking into the bar saying "Well that was crap wasn't it?"

She asked the Actors' Agent I worked for at the time - who she also knew as a friend - to try and get her some acting work but The Scottish One was never that keen on putting her forward as she was unsure of her abilities which ultimately ruined their friendship and possibly coloured ours too.

So as I said, in the past few years we seemed to dwindle into "Christmas card friends" which is sad to think on now but which is so often is the case.

So with the sound of a dirty laugh.... another part of the cliff falls away.

Sweet dreams Jools
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