British Theatre Guide podcast

Actor and author Emily Woof is best known for her film and TV work such as Mandy in The Full Monty, Shannon in Velvet Goldmine and Nancy in Oliver Twist, but she has also written novels and devised her own theatre pieces. At this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe, she is performing her own solo play, Revolver, directed by her husband, Hamish McColl, writer and co-founder of theatre company The Right Size. BTG Editor David Chadderton spoke to Emily during her Edinburgh run about the play’s subject matter, its predecessor piece at the 1993 Fringe, her devising process and her other writing work. Revolver, produced by Shared Experience, opened at Pleasance Courtyard on 14 August and runs daily at 2:20PM until 25 August 2025. (Photo of Emily Woof in Revolver, credit Sheila Burnett)

22 Aug 24min

Indie rock band The Wedding Present was formed in Leeds in 1985, achieving a huge critical success with its debut album, George Best. 40 years and 300 songs later, the band is still going, and Artistic Director of Engine House Theatre and Wedding Present fan Matt Aston has written and is directing a new musical, Reception, based on the band’s back-catalogue. BTG Editor David Chadderton spoke to Matt during rehearsals for the show about how he put it together, his history as a long-time fan of the band and the challenges of producing an original musical. David also spoke to David Gedge, founder, lead singer and songwriter for the band, about his reactions to having a musical based on his songs, his reflections on what he has seen in rehearsals and his songwriting style and technique. Reception: The Wedding Present Musical will be performed at The Warehouse in Holbeck, Slung Low, Leeds from 22 August to 6 September 2025. Tickets can be booked at the Leeds Playhouse web site. For more information about The Wedding Present, David’s other band, Cinerama, and his annual Brighton festival, see the Scopitones web site. Photo: Matt Aston (furthest left) and David Gedge (furthest right) and the cast of Reception on the first day of rehearsals (credit: Northedge Photography)

16 Aug 53min

This episode features two very different solo shows, which can both be seen at the 2025 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Thom Tuck is playing the titular 100-year-old clown, whose life story takes audiences though some of the major events of the 20th century, in Justin Butcher’s Scaramouche Jones, which he performed in Edinburgh in 2005, then again in 2015. His partner, Jenny Ryan, best-known as The Vixen on TV quiz programme The Chase, is performing her musical comedy show Björn Yesterday that unpacks her theory that ABBA never existed. BTG Editor David Chadderton spoke to them both together almost halfway through the 2025 Edinburgh Fringe about their shows, the current state of the Fringe, remembering lines and quiz answers, philosophy, the music they grew up listening to and lots more. Björn Yesterday runs every day at 5:30PM in the Cabaret Bar at Pleasance Courtyard from 30 July to 17 August. Thom Tuck is appearing in Scaramouche Jones at Hoots at Potterow at 2:45PM from 1 to 25 August 2025.

12 Aug 36min

For almost 40 years, the Classic Thriller Season has been held during the summer at the Theatre Royal, Nottingham. It’s one of the few rep seasons left in the country. In 2025, the season has been reduced to three weeks instead of four and will feature plays by Peter Gordon, Ira Levin and Richard Harris.   BTG Midlands editor Steve Orme spoke to Karen Henson from the producers Tabs Productions as well as Mark Pearce, who’s taking part in his first Thriller Season as the incomparable Inspector Pratt, and Sarah Wynne Kordas, who will be appearing in all three plays.   The Classic Thriller Season will run at the Theatre Royal from 12 until 30 August.   PICTURE: Sarah Wynne Kordas, Mark Pearce and Karen Henson.

9 Aug 19min

While the various Edinburgh festivals are running, one of the many publications providing extensive coverage of them is The List magazine, which this year celebrates its 40th anniversary. The List publishes year-round free print publications and online content on arts and entertainment in Scotland, but it will be producing seven print publications in six weeks dedicated to the festivals, as well as bringing back its cross-festival awards, which it inaugurated last year and this year has expanded with new categories. BTG Editor David Chadderton spoke to List Publishing Ltd’s CEO, Sheri Friers, about how The List started, how it kept going after lockdown nearly closed it down, expanding into Australia, the challenges of journalism in the 21st century and covering the Edinburgh festivals. To find out more and to read the magazine online, including back issues going back to 1985, see list.co.uk, or if you are in Edinburgh during August, you will be able to pick up a current issue in print from many different locations around the city.

1 Aug 25min

The winners of the biennial Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting, which this year celebrates its 20th anniversary, were announced at a ceremony at Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre on Monday 21 July 2025. Immediately after the awards were presented, BTG Editor David Chadderton spoke to four of the five winners: Daisy Miles, who won the £10,000 North-West Original New Voice Award for her play R Lady’s, Terri Jade Donovan, who won a special commendation of £5,000 for Dog Dog Dog, Silva Semerciyan, who won the Judges’ Prize of £10,000 for her play Przewalski's Horses, and Tolu Okanlawon, who won the £20,000 overall prize for his play Shooters. The winner of the International Award of £10,000, Jesús I Valles, for his play Spread was not able to attend the ceremony. (Photo of winners Silva Semerciyan, Daisy Miles, Tolu Okanlawon and Terri Jade Donovan in the Royal Exchange Theatre following the ceremony, credit: Ellie Kurttz.)

28 Jul 32min

Greg Mosse was the founder of the Criterion New Writing programme based at the Criterion Theatre in London’s West End in 2015 and has written and produced 25 plays and musicals at venues including Chichester Festival Theatre, Portsmouth Guildhall and Worthing Theatre. Since lockdown, he has turned to writing novels, despite being married to best-selling novelist Kate Mosse, and his latest book, The Coming Fire, the third in a series that he began writing during lockdown, was published by Moonflower Books on 17 July 2025. BTG Editor David Chadderton spoke to Greg just before the new book was released about the series and how he came to write it, as well as about the Criterion New Writing programme—for which he encourages mid-career theatre writers to apply—having two writers working in the same house and lots more about the process of writing and the current new writing scene in British theatre. Applications for the 2026 Criterion New Writing programme will open on 1 September 2025.

23 Jul 43min

Lorenzo Allchurch and Alex Helfrecht, the writer and director of new play Lost Watches, which is to première at Park Theatre in London this summer, met when Alex directed Lorenzo as a child actor ten years ago in the film The White King. For his debut full-length play as a writer, Lorenzo will star alongside a sculpture of the head of the author William Burroughs voiced by Jason Isaacs, star of, amongst others, The Salt Path, The White Lotus, The Death of Stalin and the Harry Potter films, in the latter as Lucius Malfoy. BTG Editor David Chadderton spoke to Lorenzo and Alex about the play and how to stage something with a surreal style and lots of technical challenges, the writing and development process, the differences between film and theatre directing, finding a gap in Jason’s busy schedule and lots more. Lost Watches can be seen at Park Theatre in London from 30 July to 23 August 2025.

15 Jul 44min