In the early 1930s, he met novelist and playwright Beverley Nichols and they remained lifelong partners from then. Their friends were Hugh Walpole and Lord Berners, among others.[2] In 1939 Butcher was living with Nichols and a valet at 1 Ellerdale Close, Hampstead, London.[3]
In 1934, he published In Extremis, Worst Moments in the Lives of the Famous with a foreword by Beverley Nichols.[4] In 1939, together with Albert Arlen, he directed the play Counterfeit! at the Duke of York's, London.[5]
In 1953, Butcher adapted Evensong by Beverley Nichols for the television,[6] while in 1956 he directed the television adaptation of Macadam and Eve from the play by Roger Macdougall.[7] Butcher was the producer of the 1957 television drama Granite Peak.[8]
Between 1959 and 1963, he directed for television: Ideal Home Exhibition (1963), The English Captain (1960), The Last Hours (1959), Old People; Part 1 (1959) and Election Results 1959 (1959).[9]
On the death of Nichols in 1984, Butcher was the main beneficiary in his will, amounting to £131,750 (£534,880 in 2023 sterling).[10]
Butcher died on 23 February 1987 aged 77 at Sudbrook Cottage, the house he shared with Nichols, at Ham Common in Richmond, Surrey.