 Clive Carey, who had been in Australia during the war, was brought back to replace Joan Cross and rebuild the company after its wartime privations and recent departures. The critic Philip Hope-Wallace wrote in 1946 that Carey had begun to make a difference, but that Sadler's Wells needed "a big heave to get out of mediocrity". In the same year The Times Literary Supplement asked whether the Old Vic and Sadler's Wells companies would stick modestly to their old bases "or shall they boldly embrace the ideal of a National Theatre and a National Opera in English?" Carey left in 1947 and his place at the head of the company was taken in January 1948 by a triumvirate comprising James Robertson as musical director, Michael Mudie as his assistant conductor and Norman Tucker in charge of administration. From October 1948, Tucker was given sole control. Mudie became ill, and the young Charles Mackerras was appointed to deputise for him.
