Emily Richard still recalls the detail in Michael's script, discussions with the director, cast and producer in rather bleak hotel rooms and a boat trip to Simi with Michael. "Olive arrived ... and I remember walking with her in the small streets of Rhodes telling her about our longed for pregnancy."

"Without exception ... everyone connected with The Dark Side of the Sun was supportive and generous with their time and affection for the project. That was M.J.B.'s gift - to bring people together."

"I had no idea that Michael had died and was very sorry to hear of it. I remember him very fondly - he was a charming, warm, witty person and as a writer a delight for actors as he was both approachable and flexible. Not always the case.

These days one often only meets the writer briefly at a read through but I do remember Michael being around quite a lot and being constructive and jolly ... and buying a lot of drinks."

"I consider Michael to have been one of the most original talents and a most interesting man with whom I spent quite a few evenings in some taverna in Aghios Nikolaos in Crete where we were filming The Lotus Eaters.

It was around 1972 and Michael was in top form. He was a born story teller and in the evening, after the other members of the crew had left, Michael and I would chew the fat, talk about scenes scheduled for filming the next day and life in general. Even if only half of what he told me were true, Michael at an earlier time in his life must have been halfway to being a "spook" a kind of James Bond. I can't quote chapter and verse now but I do remember being enthralled by his tales of cloak and dagger doings.

Michael was never overly protective of his work; he would listen to ideas, allowing a metamorphosis to occur which is why I held and still hold him in such high regard. Often discussions would end with Michael rewriting dialogue on a napkin, which I would then retype and shove under the bedroom doors of the sleeping actors. This didn't make either of us popular but it made for more imaginative story-telling."

"Michael Bird: a person, a friend for the Greek Film Centre

I met Michael Bird in the Spring of 1977. As producer, I had taken on the Greek part of the production of Who Pays the Ferryman? and I was with Michael, the director Bill Slater and the head of the production Colin Dudley in Crete in order to arrange the locations for filming. During the trip, as is usual for me, I tried to understand with whom I was travelling and with whom I would share my life during summer that the filming would last.

On the way from Chania to Aghios Nikolaos where we were based, I decided that in Michael I saw three different people - three different characters. At the grave of Nikos Kazantzakis, the famous Greek author, Michael had been moved by viewing the final resting place of his favourite author and he read and re-read in a whisper, in the Greek language, the phrase which was inscribed on the marble:

Later, when my relationship with Michael went beyond the professional and turned into a deep friendship I saw that I had judged him correctly early on in our acquaintance.

He was a person who believed in always giving of his true self, whatever he was involved in. Although he came from a country so very far from the island of Crete, he was able to give to the scene the real character of that idiosyncratic island. This ability to really get to grips with the Cretean characteristics became obvious not only in his work but also in his interactions with the people around him, in the coffee shops, the streets, the houses and the areas where he contemplated and created his heroes.

"I had the pleasure of working with Michael for several years and grew quite fond of this vexatious, talented, irritating, unpleasant, cantankerous, entertaining, witty, delightful, sympathetic, lying, promising, charming and difficult man.

We had started working together on a TV series entitled 'Brett' for the BBC before moving on to The Lotus Eaters. After I became Controller of Drama at Yorkshire Television we made several programmes together. After each one I said "I will never work with him again - he is impossible." But I liked him so I always did."

"My relationship with Michael Bird was most amicable and I considered him to be a very professional, talented and creative writer. At times he tended to 'mix' the relationships between director, artistes and producer, which created a rather tense atmosphere. I think he felt this all helped to keep everyone on their toes and was a way of protecting his work. Occasionally he demonstrated being quite dramatic and emotional when he wanted a change in a scene or an adjustment to the interpretation of one of his characters. Nevertheless, these moments of 'off screen' drama did not affect the end product and the success his scripts so rightly achieved.

Sometimes writers deliver their scripts in an untidy state, but not in the case of Michael J. Bird. It was always a welcome sight to see a perfectly well typed, neat layout on the pages of his scripts and rarely did the content not match the high quality of the typed pages.

Overall I consider some of the highlights in my 40 year career in film and television were due to the very imaginative writing and excellent scripts Michael J. Bird so often delivered. "

"I hadn't realised that Michael had died. I'm so very sorry - he was so lovely and I enjoyed working with him enormously. I remember him telling me about how he used a word processor to do his writing. I was terribly impressed - there weren't many of them around then. We're talking 1982ish.

I so wish I had had the opportunity of working with him further - I would have loved that. He was smashing and a very natural and approachable man."