Kaufmann's career, though running across all the different forms of entertainment media, is really centred on theatre.
"I was at the Old Vic Drama School - it's defunct now - and then I went straight into the West End. Believe it or not,
I've never actually done Shakespeare since the Old Vic, even though all my training was for his plays. I spent my first
six years in the West End in big plays, either understudying or, as usual, playing Americans or heavies. I've never
really featured in very big films, usually second features and TV work, but people have got to know my face."
More recently Maurice's work has been centred on the live stage. "I just did a TV thriller with Carroll Baker,
but on the whole I've been acting on stage. I've been touring with Richard Todd and I did a play about the late playwrite
Joe Orton who was murdered. I played his male lover who eventually kills him, though they didn't actually have that
on stage. I did do one movie recently, a Children's Film Foundation thing about Robin Hood. It was only meant
for Saturday morning shows, and I played the big bad Baron, but it became very well known. Barry Norman had clips of
it on Film Night and it won awards all over the place."
Like John Ronane, another leading actor who has worked with Crossroads, Kaufmann relishes his work in Britain's
top-rated TV serial. "I mean while there are those people who spit at you, it's only because they are so involved
with the show. And not everyone who approaches me wants to attack me. I was in a shop the other day and some lady
let me go in front of her in a queue and said 'It's a pleasure to stand next to somebody whose acting I enjoy.'"
All in all, Maurice Kaufmann points out, working on Crossroads is extremely rewarding. "I think that the
conditions of rehearsing are the best I've ever worked under. I think these are the most professional group of people
I have ever worked with. I thoroughly enjoy it."
