Cyril Raymond, Nicholas Crosse and Janet Morrison. “Briefest Encounters is about more than one lost love; it’s about three intertwined lives, missed chances and the emotional cost of convention,” says documentary filmmaker Joanna Crosse
A REVELATORY documentary uncovering the hidden love story behind Brief Encounter will receive its northern premiere at City Screen Picturehouse, York, on April 10 at 7pm.
Briefest Encounters – An Untold Love Story has been waiting in the wings for decades to be told and now it will be, when shown in tandem with David Lean’s November 1945 film to mark its 80th anniversary.
North Rigton-raised journalist and filmmaker Joanna Crosse uncovers the secret past of her grandfather, actor Cyril Raymond, who played the quietly cuckolded husband, the crossword-filling Fred Jesson, in the Noel Coward-scripted film.
Through letters, interviews, archive material and diaries re-discovered in a bag at a car boot sale, Crosse’s documentary traces how a real-life ‘Brief Encounter’ between two actors, Raymond and Janet Morrison, during a transatlantic stage production [Josef Suss on Broadway] resulted in a child being born out of wedlock.
The poster for Meaningful Films’ documentary Briefest Encounters – An Untold Love Story
That child, renamed Nicholas Crosse when adopted four years later by a Bradford textile family, was not only brought up in Yorkshire but ended up playing a king alongside Dame Judi Dench’s “forgetful angel” in the 1951 revival of the York Mystery Plays in the Museum Gardens.
He was chairman of the Bradford Area of the York Minster Appeal Fund, assisting the preservation of one of the county’s most important spiritual and architectural landscapes, a contribution marked by a stained glass crest in his name.
Joanna trained as a journalist in Yorkshire and worked in newspapers, radio and television in God’s Own Country at different stages of her career. She and her colleague at Meaningful Films, Luke Taylor, premiered Briefest Encounters on the 80th anniversary of Lean’s film in Bath, where they both live, but York is the first stop on a national tour.
Next Friday’s double bill – the 80th anniversary restoration of Brief Encounter first, then Briefest Encounters – will be followed by a question-and-answer session with the two filmmakers, hosted by BBC Radio York breakfast show presenter Georgey Spanswick.
Documentary filmmaker Joanne Crosse on location in Whitstable, where actress Janet Morrison lived in her last years
Introducing her film, Joanna says: “Two actors meet on a Broadway stage in 1929 and have a passionate affair and the result is a child born out of wedlock. But that boy is never to know or meet his biological father and his mother gives him up for adoption when he is just four years old. This documentary tells the true life love story, which revolves around a series of brief encounters and missed opportunities that in the end take their toll on the lead players.
“Brief Encounter is an iconic film that explores the quiet heartbreak of forbidden love. It captures the emotional turmoil of two strangers who fall for each other but cannot be together. Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard brought that heartbreak to life on screen as Laura Jesson and Dr Alec Harvey. But off-screen, a quieter, even more tragic love story was unfolding – one that’s never been told. Until now.”
Joanna continues: “Briefest Encounters is about more than one lost love; it’s about three intertwined lives, missed chances and the emotional cost of convention. It is a testament to a hidden history and a reflection of the very themes that make Brief Encounter timeless: longing, restraint and the heartbreak of what might have been. It shows how interrupted love, inherited silence and duty shaped family lives for generations.”
Joanna has worked for ITV, BBC, IRN, GMTV, C4 and C5 as an on-screen journalist, presenter and Crime Stoppers researcher, has five books to her name, is a voice coach and runs theatrical digs too. Busy, busy! “To be honest, I’ve held on to this story for more than 30 years after my mother gave me the box of my father’s details, to be its custodian,” she says.
Filmmaker Joanna Crosse and actor daughter Sedona Rose during filming for Briefest Encounters. Picture: Meaningful Films
“I’ve always been interested in genealogy. Then last year, I said to Luke, ‘it’s the 80th anniversary of Brief Encounter, we’re just going to have to make this film now’, and we started by going up to Carnforth, where the refreshment room scenes were shot, to make a promo.
“I’ve been researching the story for decades and now all that work over 30 years has been gathered into a one-hour film.”
Joanna recalls how her father knew little of his roots. “My dim memory is of him telling me that he had been told he came from a theatrical family,” she says. “Rumours abounded across Yorkshire that he was a lost Royal love child.” Not so.
Nicholas never met his father, but the documentary reveals how he did “encounter” him when he chose to see a play at Leeds Grand Theatre as his treat on a holiday break from prep school. Who should be in the cast for the premiere of the musical comedy Under The Counter but Cyril Raymond.
Nicholas Crosse and his daughter Joanna on Denton Moor
Nicholas commented “what a wonderful man” he was watching on stage, but such were the laws surrounding adoption, his adoptive family could not tell him of his connection.
Nicholas would go on to work for his family textile business James Hill & Sons, serve on multiple committees and be appointed the Deputy Lord Lieutenant of the West Riding, as well becoming involved with Norwood Film Productions. .
He died in 1981 at the age of 50. Unlike the actor parents he never knew, Cyril Raymond and Janet Morrison, whose ashes were thrown to the wind, Nicholas Crosse has a commemorative headstone at St Helen’s Church, Denton, on the Yorkshire moorland near Ilkley, where his adoptive family had owned Denton Hall.
“He was always such a wonderful natural actor, always so humorous, always good with people,” says Joanna.
Brief Encounter, Briefest Encounters and Q&A with Meaningful Films’ Joanna Crosse & Luke Taylor, City Screen Picturehouse, York, April 10, 7pm. Box office: picturehouses.com/cinema/city-screen-picturehouse.
The London premiere will be held at Picturehouse Central on May 5 at 7.30pm with a Q&A. Follow Meaningful Films on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/meaningfulfilm/?hl=en
Nicholas Crosse’s head stone at St Helen’s Church, Denton
Briefest Encounters: the back story
CYRIL Raymond was a household theatrical name whose credits filled a page of Theatrical Who’s Who. During the Second World War he served as an RAF fighter controller during the Battle of Britain and reached the rank of Wing Commander. He was awarded the MBE in the 1945 Birthday Honours List.
He was married to actress Iris Hoey and then Gillian Lind. Her uncle was William Henry Pratt, better known as Boris Karloff.
Cyril had a brief affair with actress Janet Morrison, who came from a theatrical dynasty. Her grandfather gave Henry Irving his first break and her mother, aunts and brother were all well-known actors and dancers in their day. She spent some years in BBC Rep and was cast in various productions and films.
Actor Cyril Raymond
Cyril and Janet’s son was adopted at the age of four by a Yorkshire textile family and
was known as Nicholas Crosse. He became a well-known West Riding business figure and
was made Deputy Lord Lieutenant.
He ended his days becoming involved with a film company before dying of a heart attack at 50. He never knew who his biological parents were but loved the theatre all his life, appearing in the 1951 York Mystery Plays, playing a king, alongside Dame Judi Dench (then credited as Judith Dench) as an angel.
He was married with two daughters. Joanna, the eldest, went on a quest to discover her father’s birth family and realised this was a story that had to be told. Her research led her to discover various theatrical documents including Cyril Raymond’s diaries.
Nicholas Crosse in his role as a king in the 1951 York Mystery Plays, pictured at the ruins of St Mary’s Abbey in York Museum Gardens
She was reunited with them when she was interviewed on BBC Radio 4 alongside
actor Lucy Fleming, whose mother Celia Johnson played Laura, the wife of Cyril Raymond’s
Fred Jesson in Brief Encounter.
Joanna has three children. Her youngest daughter, Sedona Rose, has been an actor
since the age of 11 and helped in the search for the truth about her theatrical
grandparents.
Nicholas Crosse: A Yorkshire life
Born: November 21 1930.
Education: Wellington College, Crowthorne, Berkshire, 1944-1948.
Family: Married in 1955; two daughters. Lived at: High Folly, North Rigton, near Leeds.
Stage school: New Era Academy of Drama and Music, London.
Joined Sir James Hill & Sons Ltd, Bradford wool importers and topmakers as an apprentice, studying all aspects of wool trade.
National Service: Commissioned in 10th Royal Hussars (PWO) in Germany.
Territorial Army: Yorkshire Hussars.
Re-joined Sir James Hill & Sons as an apprentice. Visited all wool-buying centres in Australia and New Zealand. Sales representative for home trade. Appointed export sales manager. Countries visited included North America, Europe, Middle East and North Africa.
Elected council member of Wool Industries Research Association.
Appointed to main board of Sir James Hill & Sons and sales director for home and overseas markets.
Bradford Chamber of Commerce representative on International Wool Textile Organisation and member of British National Committee.
Council member and hon. treasurer, Wool Exchange Council, Bradford.
Member of the Worsted Committee.
Chairman of Sir James Hill & Sons (Export) Ltd.
Nicholas Crosse
Other activities
Elected to Council of Bradford Chamber of Commerce.
Founder member and senior vice-president of Bradford Junior Chamber of Commerce.
President of Bradford Junior Chamber of Commerce.
Public relations and press liaison officer, Bradford Junior Chamber of Commerce.
Member of Livery of the Company of Merchants of The Staple of England.
Committee member of the Institute of Directors, West Riding of Yorkshire Branch.
Freeman of the City of London and member of Livery of the Worshipful Company of Woolmen.
Member of High Stewards committee of York Minster and chairman of Bradford Area York Minster Appeal Fund.
Life member and senator of Junior Chamber International.
Founder president of Bradford Division of British Red Cross Society.
Treasurer of Bradford City Conservative Association after three years as deputy treasurer.
President of Bradford Chamber of Commerce.
Mayor of Company of Merchants of the Staple of England.
Member of Leeds Regional Hospital Board.
Chairman of West Riding Branch of the Institute of Directors and ex-officio member of the council.
Council member of West Riding Industrialists’ Council.
Chairman of Bradford Area Health Authority.
Appointed Her Majesty’s Deputy Lieutenant of West Riding of Yorkshire and City of York.
Director of Aire Radio, which applied for I.B.A. franchise.
Nominated for High Sheriff for West Yorkshire.
Joined Norwood Studios Ltd.
Appointed to Board of Norwood Motion Pictures (U.K.) Ltd.
Appointed chairman of Wool, Jute and Flax Industry Training Board.
Appointed trustee of Industrial Training Foundation.
Nicholas Crosse’s stained glass stained glass crest at York Minster
