Joe Penhall: 'Stephen Jeffreys soothed you through failure and cheered your success'
The work of his friend and fellow playwright, says Penhall, was warm, incisive, unassuming but clever " just like the man'You're not going to like me …" Thus began The Libertine, the most famous play by Stephen Jeffreys, a friend and a great influence on my playwriting who has died after a long illness. I remember him finishing the play and reading me the first paragraph. He used to giggle at his own good lines " a…