Tim Whitnall News

Christopher Biggins, the much-loved actor, presenter and entertainer, has announced the line-up for TEA with Christopher Biggins & Guests at The Fringe at Prestonfield (venue 105) for fun, chat and fabulous musical entertainment when the new Edinburgh Festival Fringe venue opens its doors from Friday 18 – Sunday 27 August 2023. 

This August will see LENA, the new play by BAFTA and Olivier Award winner Tim Whitnall, come to the Assembly George Square playing throughout the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

In 2018, the producer Simon Friend asked me if I fancied adapting Bill Bryson’s best-selling travelogue “Notes From A Small Island” for the stage. Having jumped at the opportunity, I then remembered how the book recounts a road-trip stretching some eight hundred miles, encompassing almost fifty separate locations, flinging its narrator into the orbit of a myriad diverse characters.

All new rehearsal photos have been released from The Watermill's brand-new stage adaption of Bill Bryson’s award-winning memoir NOTES FROM A SMALL ISLAND, affectionately celebrating the quirks and eccentricities of British life, adapted by BAFTA and Olivier Award winning playwright Tim Whitnall. 

Riverside Studios has announced final details for the full spring season, including theatre, cinema, exhibitions and spoken word, alongside a full programme of community events.

The Watermill have announced the full cast of the brand-new stage adaption of Bill Bryson's award-winning memoir NOTES FROM A SMALL ISLAND, affectionately celebrating the quirks and eccentricities of British life, adapted by BAFTA and Olivier Award winning playwright Tim Whitnall.

The Watermill will kick off its 2023 season with the brand-new stage adaption of Bill Bryson’s award-winning memoir NOTES FROM A SMALL ISLAND, affectionately celebrating the quirks and eccentricities of British life, adapted by BAFTA and Olivier Award winning playwright Tim Whitnall.

Artistic Director Paul Hart, Executive Director Claire Murray and the team at Newbury’s The Watermill Theatre announced the programme of work from February to July 2023, a season with one major revival and four new adaptations that explores the deep joys and troubling complexities of life on our shores.

BWW catches up with Jon Culshaw to chat about bringing Flying High- Les Dawson to the 2022 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

It’s time to bring a little cheer into your life as theSpaceUK announces the second set of shows on sale for the 2022 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. With over 75 shows going on sale at theSpaceUK, here’s a quick peek at some you should definitely book early for. 

Les Dawson: 'Flying High' is an homage, and celebration of the beloved and much-missed comedy Legend, Les Dawson. Jon Culshaw actor, comedian and impersonator delivers a touching, funny and warm-hearted performance in this show that is set to premier at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe this August before touring the country.

2020 was the year that wasn't for pantomimes.  Hundreds of live shows up and down the land were cancelled because of the COVID pandemic, and many were only performed to online audiences.  This Christmas, panto is back with a vengeance!

Jon Culshaw will star as 'Bill Bryson' in a brand-new stage production of Bryson's award-winning memoir NOTES FROM A SMALL ISLAND adapted by BAFTA and Olivier Award winning playwright Tim Whitnall. Directed by the Watermill's Artistic Director Paul Hart, the production will have its world premiere in Newbury on Thursday 24 September and play until Saturday 31 October, with a national press night on Monday 28 September. The production will then tour to Malvern, Cambridge, and Richmond, with further dates to announced.

Over the past eleven years family-run pantomime producers, Evolution Productions have built up a reputation for being the UK's number-one creators of bespoke high-quality pantos. The 2016 line up does nothing to disprove this.  The company, which is run by husband and wife team, former TV presenter Paul Hendy and Oxford graduate and former film production manager Emily Wood, will be presenting a festive banquet of seasonal shows across the country from then end of November 2016 to mid-January 2017.  The line up comprises Dick Whttington starring Stephen Mulhern (ITV's Catchphrase, Big Star Little Star) as Billy at The Marlowe in Canterbury, Peter Pan starring Emma Barton (Honey Mitchell - Eastenders) as Tinkerbell and Shaun Williamson(Barry Evans - Eastenders and himself in Extras) at The Hawth in Croydon, Sleeping Beauty at Lichfied Garrick Theatre starring Rebecca Keatley (CBeebies) as Fairy Moonbeam and the great dame himself Sam Rabone as Nurse Nellie, Snow White at The Lyceum Theatre Sheffield starring Wendi Peters (Coronation Street - Cilla Battersby- Brown) and Phil Gallagher(CBeebies - Mister Maker), Snow White at The Alban Arena St Albans starring Rita Simons(Eastenders - Roxy Mitchell) and Ian Kirkby (Dick & Dom In Da Bungalow), Cinderella at Theatre Severn Shrewsbury with panto favourite Brad Pitt and Peter Pan at the Octagon Theatre Yeovill starring supervillain Andrew Fettes as Captain Hook. 

Gonzo Multimedia has reissued Dee Palmer's “The Orchestral Sgt Pepper”! From 1968 until 1980 she was arranger and, subsequently, keyboardist with the globally prestigious, seminal English rock group, Jethro Tull.

In July 1995, alone in his cramped study, among thousands of showbusiness artefacts, film stock and memories the comic legend Bob Monkhouse realises his treasured joke books have been stolen. This is something of a disaster in the world of the obsessive performer and joke-smith.  As the reality of the situation sinks in, he is forced into an uneasy introspection. The Man Called Monkhouse traces his life through a difficult childhood, via the vertiginous heights of television superstardom, the dent in his status during the 'new wave' comedy of the late '80s and finishes with a re-born Bob, back on TV and finally feted as the comic genius he undoubtedly was.  

Oscar-winning actor Jim Broadbent is set to take on the role of a talking trumpet in a relaunch of the 1990's BBC children show, TELETUBBIES which will feature an all-star cast.

The UK's most successful family run pantomime production company, Evolution Productions has announced its line up of bespoke high quality Christmas shows for 2014. The company, which is run by husband and wife team, former TV presenter Paul Hendy and Oxford graduate and former cinema commercial production manager Emily Wood, will be presenting a lucky seven of the best pantomimes across the country from then end of November 2014 to mid-January 2015.

Coming to Sheffield Theatres as part of its UK tour, Morecambe, a brand new production of the Olivier award-winning West End play about the man who brought sunshine into millions of British homes, comes to the Lyceum Theatre from Tuesday 8 - Wednesday 9 April.

On the night of 28th May 1984 the best-loved comedian this country has ever produced died suddenly from a heart attack. Four years previously on Christmas Day 1977 The Morecambe and Wise Christmas Special attracted 28 million viewers - half the entire population of the UK at the time. In the thirty years since Eric Morecambe's untimely death his popularity has not waned. With numerous tribute programmes, TV re-runs and DVD releases, his work, as one half of Britain's most popular double act ever, has been kept alive and introduced to a whole new generation of fans. In 2014 to mark the thirtieth anniversary of Morecambe's passing a brand new production of the Olivier award winning West End play that celebrates the life of the man who played all the right notes but not necessarily in the right order, embarks on a major national tour.