| Personal Details | Born: | 1937 | | Based: | Banbury, Oxfordshire | Work Sought: Always interested in taking commissions and offering World Premiers at favourable royalties for previously untried work. Derek has also written three pantomimes and revue material. Always willing to collaborate with other writers, particularly on comedies or farces | Theatrical Experience/Training Derek is, when the work is forthcoming, a working actor. He has worked in Repertory, and TV quite extensively. He has also toured up and down the country in pantos and straight plays and has also worked in many different fringe theatres. His most recent appearances were in ‘Charley’s Aunt’ at Stoke on Trent Rep (Spettigue) and as an Alzheimer’s victim in a new play ‘Best Before’ at the Etcetera, Camden Town. TV appearances include The Bill, Boon, Sophia and Constance, A Moment in Time, Sorry and Mapp & Lucia. He started to write plays in 1963 and has never stopped since. He finds ample time for writing whilst hanging around in dressing rooms or on film/TV locations. His first play to be staged ‘Pull the Other One’ was tried out in 1963, a full-length farce. A 30 minute thriller ‘Cat & Mouse’ was placed first of seventy four in a competition run by the Redditch Arts Council in 1967. A 40 minute radio play ‘Hitchhiker’ was broadcast twice in Ireland by RTE in 1977/8. Professional productions include ‘The Man in the Shadows’ 1968 ‘Threat’ (several Reps) and ‘Just a Matter of Time’ Wimbledon Studio 1996. Several of Derek’s plays have been translated into Flemish and are often performed in Holland and Belgium. Several others have been performed in Australia, New Zealand, Cyprus, & Zimbabwe
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