When I treated the stage and screen actor and director Leigh Lawson last month, we were both in for a surprise. His visit to the Harley Street Centre for Endodontics came about because he needed a root treatment and his dentist referred him to me. Leigh, who is married to actress and model Twiggy, sat in the chair and said ‘I once knew a Michael Webber, was he any relation?’ Off came my mask and off we went down memory lane.
It was quite an emotional appointment for us both. We chatted about our first and only previous meeting, roughly 50 years earlier, when Leigh worked in my father’s barber shop in nearby James Street.Leigh remembered me as a boy visiting my father. At that time, I was keen on acting and was offered a part in Lionel Bart’s show Oliver but my father wouldn’t let me take it. Ironically, my father was a bit of a father figure to Leigh and encouraged him to pursue his career in acting. To this day, Leigh remains very grateful to him. I have gratified my thespian inclinations through amateur dramatics and presenting on Endodontics. Harley Street is no Hollywood but I wouldn’t have missed a career treating patients for anything.