theatre company, and as a dancer, winning medals for dance across the North-East of England. When his father became ill, he returned home to work in his father's business, and performed in musical theatre for a number of years with local amateur companies including the Darlington Operatic Society. He was also a director and dance instructor for the Darlington Education Committee. D'Oyly Carte years Reed joined the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in 1951 as the understudy to Peter Pratt, who had recently become the principal comedian of the company. At the time of his audition, he knew little or nothing about Gilbert and Sullivan, but the company manager, Frederic Lloyd, assured him that the company preferred this so that they could "start you off in the way we mean you to go". The company performed 48 weeks per year, mostly on tour, usually with winter seasons in London. Reed appeared in the chorus and was given several smaller roles: Associate (1952–55) in Trial by Jury, Major Murgatroyd in Patience (1952–59), Second Citizen in The Yeomen of the Guard (1952–59), Annibale (1952–59) and Antonio (1953–59) in The Gondoliers (a role that took advantage of his dancing skills), and Mr. Cox in Cox and Box (1957–59). He was coached in his own roles and those he understudied by Eleanor Evans. the company's stage director. In 1955, Reed began to play the Learned Judge in Trial. He also substituted for Pratt occasionally, including when Pratt was ill in March and April 1959. In 1959, when Pratt left the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, Reed became the last of the company's long-serving principal comedians, remaining in that role for the next twenty years. Writer Andrew Lamb noted that Reed's "nimble dancing, characterful light-baritone singing, and the business he was able to introduce into encores and elsewhere within the generally rigid D'Oyly Carte constraints, soon helped to establish his own loyal following, and the personal rapport he enjoyed with his fans grew to legendary status." During these two decades, his parts were as follows: Sir Joseph Porter in H.M.S. Pinafore, Major-General Stanley in The Pirates of Penzance (a role that he gave up in 1969), Bunthorne in Patience, the Lord Chancellor in Iolanthe, King Gama in Princess Ida, Ko-Ko in The Mikado, Robin Oakapple/Sir Ruthven in Ruddigore, Jack Point in The Yeomen of the Guard, the Duke of Plaza-Toro in The Gondoliers, and John Wellington Wells