I was asked recently to explain why I write, which is an impossible question to answer. You get an image or a character or a relationship and you want to write it down. I have always admired Ronnie Barker and his ability to inhabit different characters, and that ability to imagine different people is what I hope to achieve to in my work.
You can hear some examples of my work should give an idea of my style. Five Asides is an evening of my monologues recorded by the Richmond Shakespeare Society and features Daniel Wain, Caroline Ross, Ian Kinane, John Wilkinson and Mia Skytte-Jensen as, respectively, a depressive Welsh ice-cream man with a very unusual customer, a middle-aged lady bothered by the noise of building that seems to be coming from next door, a kitchen fitter who has an embarrassing friend at the golf club, an artist for kids’ comics whose greatest character – Spotty Herbert – has been ripped off by a friend of his, and a pharmaceutical executive who may have found the ultimate happy pill.
There are also two pieces recorded by The Questors Theatre. It Was Funny the First Time is a black comedy about a man (Daniel Cawthery) who goes to a book group, just for a laugh really – only it isn’t such a laugh by the end of it. In the audio play The Dragon and the Canary (starring Iain Reid, Fiona Partington and Rory Hobson, and Otis of course) a woman calls into the Lost Property Office at Baker Street to ask if her handbag has been handed in, but both her and the Lost Property Officer have surprises in store.
I have had short plays put on at The Almeida, The Space, The 503, The Brockley Jack, The King’s Head in Manchester, The Bread and Roses, The Questors and The Vaults and for some years I wrote for Roy Hudd’s long-running radio comedy show The News Huddlines.
