He was appointed chief theatre critic for The Times in London in 1990 in succession to Irving Wardle.
The term comedy of menace, which British drama critic Irving Wardle based on the subtitle of The Lunatic View: A Comedy of Menace (1958), by David Campton, is a jocular play-on-words derived from the "comedy of manners" (menace being manners pronounced with a somewhat Judeo-English accent).
While at Oxford Wardle participated in theatre, performing in a production of The Tempest alongside the actors Nigel Davenport and Jack May, the future directors John Schlesinger and Bill Gaskill, and Mary Moore, the future principal of St Hilda's College, Oxford.
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Co-authors: Michael Billington, Georges Banu, Michael Coveney, Marina Constantinescu, Mircea Ghitulescu, Dan Haulica, Nicolae Manolescu, Dan C. Mihailescu, Eugen Negrici, Cipriana Petre, Marian Popescu, Miruna Runcan, Victor Scoradet, Antoaneta Tanasescu, Ion Vartic, Irving Wardle.