ith the Second World War he redifined the spirit of the country in films such as This Happy Breed, In Which We Serve, Blithe Spirit and, perhaps most memorably, Brief Encounter. In the post-war Coward, the ageing Bright Young Thing, seemed outmoded by the Angry Young Men, but, like any modern pop star, he reinvented himself, this time as a hip cabaret singer: 'Las Vegas, Flipping, Shouts "More!" as Noel Coward Wows 'Em in Cafe Turn' enthused Variety.
y the 1960s his reappraisel was complete - 'Dad's Renaissance', called it - and his Hay Fever was the first work by a living author to be produced at the National Theatre. He was knighted - at last - in 1970, and died in his beloved Jamaica on 26 March 1973. Since his death his reputation has grown. There is never a point at which plays are not being performed, or his songs being sung.
