Peter Gill, the playwright and director whose unsparing honesty and uncompromising integrity made him one of British theatre's unsung heroes, has died at the age of 86. For decades, Gill toiled in relative obscurity, admired by his peers but largely unknown to the public - until his annus mirabilis of 2002, when his play The York Realist scooped up awards and the Sheffield Crucible staged a month-long retrospective of his work, alongside a new play, Original Sin. Because nothing says 'retrospective' like a fresh piece to critique.

Gill's journey began in a Welsh, working-class Catholic family, and he started as an actor - keen-eyed viewers might spot him in the film Zulu. But it was at London's Royal Court, where he became an associate director in 1964, that he truly learned his craft. There, he absorbed the values that would define his career: a near-religious reverence for the text, a devotion to pure design, and an unwavering respect for actors. Because nothing says 'respect' like making them perform your exacting vision night after night.

His dramas, such as The York Realist, dissected divided class loyalties with a clear-eyed precision that matched his rigorous directorial style. Gill had a knack for turning the ordinary into the extraordinary, proving that the mundane lives of the working class could be as dramatic as any royal tragedy - just with more tea and less iambic pentameter. His legacy is one of unflinching truth, both on the page and on the stage, reminding us that honesty, however uncomfortable, makes for the best theatre.