advised to change his name, "Geeves" being reminiscent of P. G. Wodehouse's fictional Jeeves. Booth made his first professional appearance as a member of the Old Vic company in a production of Timon of Athens (1956) with Ralph Richardson. His first film role was a bit in The Narrowing Circle (1956) and he had small parts in The Girl in the Picture (1957). Joan Littlewood He joined Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop at the Theatre Royal, Stratford East in 1958. He appeared on stage in The Hostage (1958). For TV he appeared in The Iron Harp and episodes of William Tell and The Invisible Man. Booth was in the cast of Sparrers Can't Sing. In 1960 he starred in the stage musical Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be which became a hit and Booth, who played its most pungent character, looked poised for stardom. According to one obituary, "Booth seemed to excite the theatre like a fountain of high spirits, with his cockney voice and his mischievous way of expressing himself, sometimes teasing, sometimes truly... Booth's manner with an audience, which he took into his confidence, was so personal...The reason for Booth's success lay simply with his personality. His height also helped. He would loom over the footlights with a commandingly wide grin. And his unpretentious manner added to the ease with which these early performances were accepted." Warwick Films Producer Irving Allen signed Booth to an exclusive contract with Warwick Films. By this stage he met and married Paula Delaney and he would later say " 'I don't know what kind of mess my life would be in today if it hadn't been for Paula and Irving. I'm a very insecure person. I've always needed someone to give me security. And they both did." Booth's first sizeable film role was in Jazz Boat (1960), directed by Ken Hughes for Warwick. That movie starred Anthony Newley and Anne Aubrey, who were also in Booth's next film, Let's Get Married (1960). Hughes cast Booth in two more movies for Warwick, The Trials of Oscar Wilde (1960) with Peter Finch and In the Nick (1960) with Newley and Aubrey. The financial failure of these films saw the end of Warwick, but Irving Allen then used Booth in a movie for a new company, The Hellions (1961), shot in South Africa. Booth appeared on TV in The Ruffians (1960) and The Great Gold Bullion