I’ve worked at the Edinburgh festivals in various roles (fixer, critic, press officer, floor sweeper) since 1999, though most often as a live producer for sketch comedy team The Penny Dreadfuls: performers David Reed, Thom Tuck and Humphrey Ker, designer Neil E. Hobbs and executive producer Idil Sukan. Together, we made a series of sell-out shows staged at the Greenwich Theatre (London), the Pleasance and Underbelly venues at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the Glasgow Comedy Festival and elsewhere across the UK.
Two critically-acclaimed mock Victorian sketch shows – Aeneas Faversham (2006) and Aeneas Faversham Returns (2007) – were followed by the full-length comic play, Aeneas Faversham Forever (2008), and later adapted for BBC Radio 4. Bored of frock-coats, we then turned to the present to make two more funny, stupid shows: The Never Man (2009) and the eponymous The Penny Dreadfuls (2010). We received lots of nice reviews and narrowly lost any number of industry awards as a group, though both Thom and Humphrey went on to win Best Newcomer Awards in the attempt to confuse future biographers.
Since 2010, we’ve all pursued separate projects though the boys make regular appearances on BBC Radio 4’s longstanding Saturday play series in slightly accurate historical dramas written by Dave and featuring the amazing Margaret Cabourn-Smith alongside a range of guest stars including Richard E Grant, Miles Jupp, Kevin Eldon, Susan Calman, Robert Webb and Lolly Adefope. These comedies – The Curse of the Beagle, The Odyssey, Macbeth Rebothered, Hereward the Wake, Guy Fawkes and The Penny Dreadfuls present.. Revolution! – are available to buy from Audible and BBC Worldwide.