COINCIDENCE led to Mike Tiley discovering his great uncle was involved in a circle of friends, whose story will be told Malvern Theatres.

Best of Friends will be staged this month and, by another coincidence, Mr Tiley is friends with two of the play's stars - Roy Dotrice and Patricia Routledge.

"It's extraordinary when these things come together," he said.

Now living in Ealing, university careers adviser Mr Tiley was brought up in the Malvern area when his father, Rev Tim Tiley, was vicar of Powick.

Written by Hugh Whitemore, Best of Friends is based on a true story and explores the friendship between playwright George Bernard Shaw, Sir Sidney Cockerill, curator of the Fitzwillam Museum in Cambridge, and Dame Laurentia McLachlan, abbess at Stanbrook Abbey for 22 years until her death in 1953.

It was Mr Tiley's great uncle, Worcestershire Sauce inventor Dyson Perrins, who first introduced Sir Sidney to Dame Laurentia when he was living at Davenham in Graham Road, Malvern, which is now a residential home.

Mr Perrins, a great collector of manuscripts and salters, visited Dame Laurentia with Sir Sidney because the Stanbrook Abbey nuns were experts on calligraphy.

The two men were so charmed by her that Sir Sidney encouraged his friend George Bernard Shaw to meet her.

At first Shaw refused, but when they eventually met, they became firm friends and the play is based on letters they wrote to each other and Sir Sidney.

"They just had a wonderful relationship," said Mr Tiley, who only discovered this part of his great uncle's life when he saw the play on television.

He remembers meeting Dyson Perrins in 1951 at Davenham, when he was six and his great uncle 96. He was very disappointed at the time that the tea his parents had promised him did not materialise.

Roy Dotrice is a close family friend and Patricia Routledge used to be his nextdoor neighbour. Mr Tiley hopes to catch up with them both when the play visits Malvern.

Best of Friends runs from Monday to Saturday, April 17 to 22. Tickets are £16 to £24 on 01684 892277.