Leslie is hoping that his latest acting role will be seen by many of the one million people who, like him, live alone and experience periods of intense loneliness.

The 87-year-old has travelled the world, performed in theatres across the country, raised four children and still has a passion for Shakespeare. For the past ten years he has been on his own.

One day, in his West Country home, he heard Esther Rantzenon the radio talking about The Silver Line and the work it does in helping to tackle loneliness in older age.

“I have lived a fantastic life,” he said. “And I was quite prepared to accept living on my own. Then I was listening to Esther Rantzen and she was talking about how some people go for weeks without talking to anyone and I said, ‘Wait a minute, that’s me’. I had never considered it before.”

Leslie’s two marriages, he says, broke down because of his career, which involved the merchant navy, acting in repertory, journalism and running the International Ship Suppliers Association. He has experienced health problems in recent years, curtailing many of the hobbies that he once enjoyed. He now goes out just once a day to buy a newspaper.

“People who meet me in the street say hello but you do not get to know them,” he said. “Nobody has held out the hand of friendship.

“That’s not a criticism — people have their own lives and their own families. They don’t like the idea of accepting a stranger into their lives.”

After hearing Ms Rantzen — made a dame in the new year’s honours list, in part for setting up The Silver Line — Leslie now has a Silver Friend. Jan calls him once a week on the phone and the pair can chat for a couple of hours at a time.

“It is a lifeline,” he said. “She’s a stranger, we are anonymous, I can tell her things that I could not tell others. She finds it interesting to hear what I have to say. She talks about her life and the things she is doing. I really look forward to it.”

He is also the star of the charity’s Christmas ad, where he acts out the part of a lonely grandfather who puts out the tablecloth, lays out some mince pies and sits down beside the Christmas tree, only to watch through the window as a young neighbour is visited by the family.

Leslie says that he is luckier than many of the million-plus elderly people who, in the words of The Silver Line, suffer the pain of loneliness. He has children and grandchildren who, although dispersed across the country, visit and call him.

He writes 1,000 words a day for novels he doesn’t think will be published, and he has his love of Shakespeare.

His conversation is peppered with references to plays that he performed in at small theatres, or to classic roles from the most renowned actors of the 20th century.

The charity hopes to set up a Silver Line circle, where Leslie and other like-minded people can discuss the bard in conference calls. The charity has previously set up similar groups centring on various themes, including music.

“I could recite to you The Seven Ages of Man if you have the time,” he said. “People nowadays seem to like communicating with those little devices in their pockets, you know — Facebook and Twitter.

“But they don’t have that personal connection you get on the phone.
“Facebook and Twitter are really appalling. You know Shakespeare’s sonnets were love notes, expressions of feelings. It was a way of communicating in Elizabethan times. Now a tweet is 160 letters or something. It’s not really the same.”

He said that his experience — not having family around him — was replicated across the country.

“Families are dispersed. There are fewer personal connections.”

(The Times)