Our biggest piece of detective work was on the source of the many quotations spoken by Rover. Between themselves the actors soon cracked most of the Shakespearean quotes, though once or twice Alan Howard, who was playing Rover, initially attributed lines from roles he had played to the wrong play (which he had also been in!)...........
Clifford Williams in the introduction to the play, published by Heinemann Educational Books, 1977.
"........Wild Oats has been one of those plays which knits a group together in special joy. Unknown to begin with, tricky to rehearse, the outcome genuinely uncertain. After the first night back in December, Alan Howard, Norman Rodway, Joe Melia, myself and our respective wives had dinner together in unparalleled gloom. In vain did the wives try to comfort their spouses. Disaster was in the air and we knew it. Happily we were wrong........."
Clifford Williams, "Diary of a West End director". Plays and Players, January 1978.
(Extracts from Clifford Williams diary of the year 1977.)